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With Tommy Tompkins in Korea 




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With 

Tommy Tompkins 

In Korea 



By 
L. H. UNDERWOOD, M. D. 




New York Chicago Toronto 

Fleming H. Revell Company 

London and Edinburgh 



Copyiiglit, 1905, by 
FLEMING 11. REVELL COMPANY 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

DEC 5 1905 

CopyrtgM Entry 
CLASS CL XXc. No. 
' COPY B. 



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New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago: 80 Wabash Avenue 
Toronto: 27 Richmond Street, W. 
London: 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street 



,* 



Preface 



Having been often asked to describe the 
home and every-day life of Westerners living in 
the far East, I have tried to depict faithfully some 
of the real experiences of a real boy and his fam- 
ily and friends living in Korea. At the same 
time I have woven in much of the home life of 
the natives and descriptions of many of their 
customs with regard to birth, death, marriage, 
religion, holidays, etc., contrasting them with 
ours. 

The family of whom I have written were per- 
haps more favoured than many, living as they 
did in the interesting capital of a most interest- 
ing country, and their trials were few, and such 
as they were have not been enlarged upon. 
Hoping this book may serve to show the con- 
trast, between the family of a happy little western 
boy, and the poor children born in the dark, so 
that the hearts of the readers may ask, " How 
can this be changed?" and **What can I do 
about it ? " it is given to the public. 

Lillian H. Underwood. 

Sioul, August, igo^. 



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Contents 








I. 


The Boy's Arrival . . .11 


II. 


What the Boy Found 




31 


III. 


PON Gabe 




61 


IV. 


Korean Nursery Life 




76 


V. 


A Chapter of Presents 




105 


VI. 


Brown Eyes 




• 134 


VII. 


A Tour . . . 






. 155 


VIII. 


At the River 






175 


IX. 


The Rainy Season 






196 


X. 


Boy Husbands 






. 215 


XL 


To Japan and China 






. 236 


XII. 


Housekeeping 






. 270 


XIII. 


The Boy's Christian Endeavour 




Society . 






. 298 





1 



.* 



List of Illustrations 



South Street, Seoul . 

Tommy Tompkins and His 
Korean Nurse 

How Women Carry Babies 
IN Korea .... 

Buddhist Monks 

Buddhist Pagoda 

Gutter Shop, Seoul . 

South Gate, Seoul . 

The Korean Throne . 

A Korean Lady in Full 
Costume . , . , 



Facing title page 
Facing page 21^'^ 



84 
114 
114 
136 
150 
220 

292 



r 




I 

THE BOY'S ARRIVAL 

The young American had just arrived in the 
old country, and what a contrast there was in 
ages ! He so very young, only two or three 
hours in fact, and the country — well when nations 
get to be as old as this, age is a delicate matter 
to talk about as feelings might be hurt if guesses 
fell too far short. So I will be a little indefinite, 
as it is always as well to be, when dealing with 
ticklish subjects, and simply say it was a hoary 
old nation, well on in its thousands. 

The way the young American came there was 
this. He belonged to a race of people called 
Anglo-Saxons, who can never be well contented 
at home, but must go walking up and down on 
the earth and to and fro in it. His ancestors had 
left England, Holland and Scotland, and crossed 
the Atlantic, to a new country, to gain religious 
and civil liberty, two hundred years before, and 
his father and mother, with a spark of the same 
spirit quickening in their hearts, had crossed a 
wider ocean, to bring that religion to enslaved 
peoples. So Tommy Tompkins (for that is what 
they disrespectfully called him) had decided to 
come too. Not that he could be of much use, 

II 



12 The Boy's Arrival 

you will say ; but not so fast my friend. A baby 
carries a charm, an open sesame, to hearts and 
homes, and a Holy family, whether in Egypt 
like that one of which we read in the sweet old 
story, or in Korea will shed an effulgence all 
around it. And isn't any family holy, just to the 
extent that Jesus is in its midst and rules its 
thought and action ? Of course it isn't a family 
at all, without a child. Tompkins' parents at any 
rate thought a child was necessary to make a 
family perfect, and they had adopted one before 
this one came to them from God. Perhaps it 
isn't fair to put it quite that way though, for sure 
the other came from God too. When you, with- 
out knowing what is coming, stumble on a poor 
little orphan child, and you have plenty of home, 
food and love to spare, it is not fair to say that 
God didn't send him, is it ? 

Yet God sends so many such little creatures, 
to so many people, who, one would think would 
jump at the chance to complete their circle and 
make themselves into a happy family, and they 
just won't see it in that way. So I don't feel 
sorry for them a bit, if they never get to be a 
family, but keep on growing more and more two 
separate, selfish entities, trying to be happy with 
a half life. I want to branch off right here, and 
tell about that first child that God sent, and then 

C took, before Tompkins came, but as I've com- 

menced about him now, Pon Gabe (that's the 

> 



A Difference in Time 13 

other) must wait a little and come in by 
and by. 

So to return to Tompkins, I said he was only 
two or three hours old, but ages are queer things. 
He was bom at two o'clock A. M., on the 6th of 
September, in Korea, Asia, while another fellow 
arrived at the home of his mother's friend in 
Chicago, United States, at three o'clock P. M. on 
the 5th of September. Yet our hero came into 
existence first. The sun tries to compensate 
people who live in the far East for the privileges 
they are deprived of by banishment from the 
most glorious country in the world, and throws 
in a few extra hours to their account. They 
don't think much of it at first, but hours and 
minutes are commodities whose value increases 
as one grows older, or as our stock of them de- 
creases. They couldn't be bought for millions, 
though many a king would have given millions 
or even kingdoms for just one. I said he was 
older, well to be exact, he really was not older, 
don't you see, according to the calendars, for if 
they were to be believed, — as he undoubtedly 
came on Saturday morning and the other boy on 
Friday afternoon — Tompkins was eleven hours 
younger, and yet by actual fact, he arrived upon 
this twirling old globe several hours before the 
Chicago boy. Any of those meridian and 
time-table people will bear me out in this as- 
sertion. 



14 The Boy's Arrival 

His bag-gage came a whole month before he 
did. His grandfather and grandmother sent it 
in a very large important looking packing-box, 
most of the space in which was filled with a baby 
carriage, all springs and cushions, and a great 
parasol of lace and silk, and such an inexpressibly 
delightful teeter, as soon as it was put together 
a baby had to be borrowed to try how Tompkins 
would look in it. He looked — ^just seraphic ! 
There was a bright halo all around him, as he 
laughed, and clapped his hands and jumped in 
that springing seat. Such a history as that car- 
riage had too. For thirteen years it did steady, 
faithful service for nine babies, in five different 
families, Tompkins first, and he passed it down. 
But there was a smaller box inside the big one 
with baby's wardrobe. Such delicate filmy robes, 
such tiny dainty little caps, all lace and ruching 
and ribbands. Such soft downy little jackets, 
such luxurious little wrappers of pink, and white, 
and blue wool, and white silk. Such shawls and 
blankets, and down pillows, with embroidered 
slips, and a carriage robe and an elegant cloak 
for visiting, I suppose. But cunningest of all 
were the little woven silk undervests no bigger 
than a minute, that looked as if they ought to be 
framed and hung up in the parlor. Two people 
felt as if the family had been promoted, now 
that the king was coming and his things really 
there. 



Korean Mothers 1^ 

A glorious Presence seemed brooding over the 
house. A holy awe that was all glowing with 
joy filled their hearts. The things were all care- 
fully put away in a chest of drawers, and nearly 
every day they made a little pilgrimage, hand in 
hand, reverently opened the drawers, unfolded 
and softly handled each little article with loving 
fingers, looked at each other with shining eyes, 
kissed with a long sigh, carefully closed the 
drawer and went away. They were very foolish, 
weren't they, so much so I'm almost ashamed to 
tell about them, but they were very happy, so I 
don't think they minded being foolish at all. 

In Korea a mother doesn't have a name of her 
own, she isn't even Mrs. *'So-and-So" but she's 
**the little pig's mother" (Toyagi Amonni) or 
"Peach's mother" always known only as the 
mother of such a one. 

You see these ignorant and degraded Koreans 
seem to think the greatest honour that can befall 
a woman is to be the mother of somebody. There 
is no doubt they are very uncivilized and need a 
great deal of enlightenment. 

But as our young American had come to live 
in Korea I shall follow Korean custom and call 
his mother Tompkins' Amonni, or mother (which 
is the meaning of Amonni). She wouldn't mind 
it I know, in fact she became so Koreanized that 
I verily believe she'd be proud of it. 

But I was going to say, that Tompkins' Amonni 



l6 The Boy's Arrival 

was so hard to satisfy that she wasn't contented 
with all those charming little articles that came 
from America, but she wanted to make some- 
thing for his kingship, to be, herself, and sat all 
day over entrancing patterns, cutting out the cun- 
ningest tiny yokes and sleeves, and putting in the 
daintiest stitches, and every time the needle went 
in, it carried love, until the frail material was 
quite heavy with it, and while she was working, 
the most delightful little shivers came and went 
down her back, and sometimes she was so happy 
she had to stop and dream about it a little, and 
once or twice her heart was so full, the joy welled 
up and brimmed over, and went sparkling down 
her cheeks. Such a simpleton ! There were two 
baskets in the outfit, one full of mysterous things 
for Tompkins' toilet, all pink silk and ribbands 
and white lace. 

That stood in its own shrine in the coziest cor- 
ner of the room, and there was another of the 
kind natives call ** chirungs," which they use for 
carrying fruit and vegetables. The missionaries 
however used them for infants' cots, and that 
was what this was for. A false bottom was fast- 
ened in, and it was lined with soft muslin and 
trimmed with ruffles and valances of lawn, some 
of the ridiculously small sheets, blankets and 
down pillows were arranged in it, and then *' the 
Captain" (that was what she called Tompkins' 
papa) would have it on his side of the bed. 



The Captain's Bearing 17 

The Captain it must be confessed was a little 
inclined to be overbearing at times, and really 
over this matter, there was almost a straining of 
the relations between the powers. But he had 
his own way. I suppose however that this came 
about because they were in Korea, where the 
people are, as I remarked before, only half civi- 
lized, and have strange customs and practices. 
They actually believe a man ought to be the 
ruler of his family — almost as antiquated as the 
Bible you know — and that if he cannot have 
his own way anywhere else he ought to have 
it there. That is why he was called Captain. 
However, after Tompkins came, as he used to do 
most of the floor walking, and administering of 
colic remedies, and always proved more than 
willing to shoulder all the burdens which accom- 
panied this great privilege, including the baby 
himself, I think he deserved some concessions, 
don't you ? 

There was an attendant too in waiting for His 
Royal Highness. A little, thin Korean woman 
not five feet high, all dressed in white, with tiny 
little white stockinged feet that never made a bit 
of noise (you know Koreans leave their shoes 
outside the door) and with a pale, meek face that 
wore an honest, faithful look. Tompkins' mother 
paid her two dollars and a half gold a month, 
that is five yen and that meant at that time 600 
of those queer, little, brass, five cash pieces, made 



l8 The Boy's Arrival 

with holes in the centre. They are all strung 
together and very heavy, so she had to get her 
husband to come and carry it home. For of 
course she lived at home, if such a dark little hut 
could be called that, and receiving such a mag- 
nificent stipend, found her own meals. She was 
now a person of wealth and importance and sup- 
ported her own family. 

Well as I began so long ago to say, Tomp- 
kins had just come an hour or so since, every- 
thing was quiet, everybody contented but the 
Captain. He knew that nothing could be right, 
and his duty not done to the waiting continent 
on the other side of that old hypocrite misnamed 
the Pacific, until they were informed of events of 
importance transpiring in Asia. 

So he with a devotion worthy of the cause, 
sallied forth long before daylight, routed out the 
poor, sleepy, telegraph officials, and sent quiver- 
ing through the Yellow Sea, over the trackless 
steppes of Siberia across Europe and afar through 
the tumultuous heart of the Atlantic, the old sweet 
message of sacred writ ; the message which wher- 
ever it comes to a family or nation is the sweetest 
and richest in promise. 

" Unto us a child is born^ u7tto us a son is givenP 

The Koreans are fond of babies, and no one 
ever hears of little ones, either boys or girls being 
killed in that land. They are often called Pig 



If Tompkins Were a Korean 19 

or Stick or Sorrow and other equally ugly names, 
so as not to attract the attention of envious 
spirits who might harm them, but all who come, 
seem to be more than welcome and are as a rule 
petted and spoiled to any extent. 

If Tompkins had been a native the precise mo- 
ment of his advent would have been ascertained 
with the greatest care, so that the astrologers 
could draw his horoscope and foretell his future. 

The house doors and compound gates would 
have been closed and none but members of the 
family would have been allowed to pass. His 
mother would rise on the third day and leave her 
room on the seventh. Great rejoicings would 
take place on the event of the fourteenth and 
twenty-first birthdays, and when he was 100 days 
old a feast would have been given, with a peculiar 
kind of bread and cakes made for such occasions, 
of fine rice flour. 

But alas ! Tompkins w^as only an American 
boy a " wayin " and nothing of all this splendour 
of stately ceremony came to pass. 

Had he been a Korean his father would have 
looked forward to the time when in his place he 
should worship at the ancestral tablets, keep up 
the family traditions, keep green his father's 
memory, and attend to his needs in the spirit 
world. But none of these great responsibilities 
were hanging over Tommy Tompkins, nothing 
but the " White Man's Burden " of which much 



20 The Boy's Arrival 

has been said, but which if it means anything 
1 think must be something Hke that which 
was carried by the Man of Sorrows on the way 
to Calvary and which when he fainted 'neath its 
weight he shared with a black brother they say. 
Not the same burden. Oh, no, that was never 
borne but once, and by only One, but of that 
kind. The sorrows, the wrongs, the sins of hu- 
manity ! Ay, baby, that burden and responsibil- 
ity was waiting at your cradle. You will not feel 
it yet, not yet, it will wait, it will be patient, but 
some day, you cannot escape it, Tompkins, it will 
meet you in some dark valley, in the shadowy 
border of some solitude of sorrow, and there hav- 
ing entered the fellowship of suffering, you will 
bend and receive it and go forth bravely and 
bearing it gladly if you are to be the kind of man 
we believe you must be. 

But now, the little American having only just 
come, couldn't know what was waiting, what that 
awful but sublime fellowship could be which he 
was to join some day with all who are to wear 
crowns, bear palms, sing the new song, and be 
priests and kings with a white stone inscribed 
with a secret name. He had no inkling of it, but 
just cuddled down in his little nest and slept and 
slept. 

Although Tompkins came to such an out of 
the way place, don't think he hadn't a trained 
nurse. It's doubtful whether he would have con- 




TOMMY TOMPKINS AND HIS KOREAN NURSE 



Luxuries of the West 21 

descended to stay if he had not had one. It 
would be too much to expect of any right-minded 
American child to forego what is the privilege of 
all in these days. One of these ministering an- 
gels was there. She was called a missionary but 
that didn't spoil her a bit. When his majesty 
was made comfortable she went home, but she 
came every day and ducked him to his great de- 
light, until his mamma was able to play with her 
new doll herself, and when that time came, no 
one, no not the Queen of England, or the Czarina 
of Russia, though they had begged the privilege 
on bended knees, should have been allowed to 
give Tompkins his morning dip. 

When his elaborate toilet was made, and he 
had partaken of a slight repast, for which he was 
by that time clamouring in a way that struck ter- 
ror to the hearts of his minions, he was placed in 
his carriage, the umbrella dipped to just the right 
angle, and he was taken to the garden for his 
airing. Sometimes on these occasions the Cap- 
tain was present, and if so, his overbearingness 
invariably showed itself quite unpleasantly, in in- 
sisting on pushing the carriage. I'm willing to 
leave it to any one if it isn't eminently proper 
that a mother should push her own baby's car- 
riage, and whether it doesn't look foolish and 
womanish and weak-minded for a man to do it, 
altogether unmanly in fact? And yet that ab- 
surd Captain was so selfish, willful and determined 



22 The Boy's Arrival 

to have his own way, he would do it. He posi- 
tively seemed, in fact, to think that Tompkins 
belonged as much to him as to Tompkins' 
Amonni (a manifestly ridiculous hypothesis as all 
mothers will allow) and when he was prancing 
along (no man can push a carriage like a w^oman) 
with the baby in the small vehicle in front of him, 
and the mamma at his side, you w^ould think 
(you really could not help it) that he was actually 
proud and lifted up on account of it. Simpleton 
number two ! 

The young American was called Tompkins as 
I said, but that was just for fun, because he had 
such a solemn little countenance, and by the time 
he was two months old, such a demure httle fash- 
ion of trying not to laugh. But he was also in- 
vested wdth a proper American name, after his 
papa and his grandpapa, w^hich name was writ- 
ten down in the great books in the American 
Legation in Seoul. He had a Korean name too, 
for all foreigners must have a name which can be 
represented by a Chinese character, in which na- 
tive names are written, and which can be pro- 
nounced and read by natives, as foreign ones 
cannot. 

This country being on the underside of the 
earth everybody and of course nearly every cus- 
tom is upside down, so in writing or speaking, 
people's surnames come first and given names 
last. In a letter addressed to 



Topsy Turvey 23 

Mr, John Brown^ 

No. ^pj Thirty-second St.y 

New York^ 

U, S. A,, 
they would write it thus : 

The United States of America^ 
New York^ 

Thirty-second St.^ 

4g^th number^ 
Brown John Mr. 
The fact that the letter is going to the United 
States is the first thing to be ascertained by the 
first postmaster who handles it, New York the 
second and so on in their order, so that were it 
not that it differs so radically from our own cus- 
tom, we might almost think it a sensible plan, 
but these eastern nations are so darkened and so 
ridiculous in all their practices it is of course quite 
unworthy of our consideration. 

But I commenced to talk about Tompkins' 
Korean name and here I've been wandering all 
the way back to New York again like a homing 
pigeon. 

His father's Korean name was Mr. Wun, and 
General Cho Peungsa a Korean friend, advised 
the baby should be called Han Kyungi Han 
(nara hancha) which means that the character 
which stands for that kind of Han signifies Korea, 
and that taking all three of his characters into 
account Wun Han Kyung, it signified either 



24 The Boy's Arrival 

**the blessing of Korea" or **the blessing which 
came to his parents in Korea." So fervently 
hoping both might be true of him, the name was 
solemnly adopted. 

A Korean boy is given an **ai myeng" or 
child name, like Stick, Pig, Tip-top, Trouble or 
First-born, by which he continues to be called 
until his hair is put up, and all the important 
ceremonies, marriage generally included, con- 
nected with his celebration of manhood, take 
place. This name is then laid aside, except by 
his parents perhaps, and his new common name 
or " Chu," given for all ordinary occasions and his 
dignified and formal name or Kwan myeng, only 
worn as *' best bib and tucker " for official, busi- 
ness and state purposes, is also at that time be- 
stowed. This latter ofBcial name is chosen with 
great care in accordance with certain set official 
rules, in the case of boys of good family ; and 
part of it, is almost as much as the surname, even 
before he is born. At certain periods after a cer- 
tain cycle of years, heads of families belonging 
to the same tribe or clan, descended from the 
same ancestors, meet and arrange the order the 
official names shall follow. Each generation of 
this clan has the same distinctive name repre- 
sented by a Chinese character. Perhaps referring 
to one of the five elements as Koreans distin- 
guish them; that is metal, wood, water, fire, 
earth. Should metal be the one chosen the 



Family Names 25 

Chinese root character for metal must be part of 
this name. One generation therefore having 
taken metal, the next must use some other, say 
wood. 

In the family whose surname is Min, the char- 
acter distinguishing one generation in each 
household is Ho, and it is placed last, so that 
we have an entire circle of cousins called Min 
Tai Ho, or Min Chu Ho, or Min Che Ho, etc. 
In the next generation the character representing 
Yang might be chosen and this, in order to al- 
ternate, would by arrangement be placed first, so 
that this younger circle of cousins would be 
known as Min Yang Chun, Min Yang Whan, 
Min Yang Ik, etc. For the next generation 
another character would be chosen and again its 
location in the name settled by mutual agree- 
ment. By this method, any one at all acquainted 
with the family would know at once on hearing 
the name, to which branch and generation he 
belongs. These names are to be inscribed on 
family tablet stones and repeated hundreds of 
times in the prayers of future generations. The 
Chu or common name, given at the same time 
must also be made up with a Chinese character, 
which corresponds in meaning, or fits suitably 
with the official cognomen. 

In addition, men following their own fancy at 
times take some special name, let their friends 
know and are addressed accordingly. This cus- 



26 The Boy's Arrival 

torn throws Hght on the Lord's promise to His 
own pecuHar friends, to reveal to them His new 
name, showing the nearer and more intimate re- 
lation to His chosen ones. 

The Koreans are a much named people, for 
still further nearly every man has a nickname 
by which he is known by all acquaintances, some- 
times with reference to character, looks, deeds, or 
some town or county where he has lived or dis- 
tinguished himself. It is quite evident they 
would never agree with Shakespeare that a name 
signifies little, and if he were to ask them his 
hackneyed old question, they would probably 
write him even a longer chapter than I have on 
the subject. 

Surnames are extremely few in Korea, not one 
hundred different ones among ten mil- 
lions of people. The commonest of 
these are Yi, Min, Yun, Yon Hong 
^ Kim No, Saw Won Paik, Pil and a few 






\J^ But to return to Tompkins, and his 

I Korean name, if it were written out in 

• "/ Korean letters it would look a little like 

(j this. I say a little like this because the 

natives write so precisely and neatly wdth their 

water color brushes and India ink, that my pen 

scratches look like the scrawl of a baby. But 

if it were written in Chinese which it certainly 

would be on his cards, or whenever formality 



The Alphabet 27 

was required, it would be like this. It is a great 
pity that it is human nature, to go forever adopt- 
ing some absurd, ungainly, incon- ^ ■ - ^ 
venient, inefficient custom of for- ay 

eigners and neglect or despise its -^ '— ^ 
own, simpler and far more useful. h^ 

Josephine perchance prefers a^Z^ Jj^ 
bankrupt French count with a long;. Q 
string of titles to her own, sturdy, / J-p- 
honest, homespun, farmer lover, / 

and these foolish Koreans who ^,^ U^^ 
have a wonderful alphabet of ^^ 
twenty-six letters which has not its % | r 
peer in the East, hardly in the' f 
world, an alphabet which is the wonder of savants 
and which with the constitutional monarchy sets 
her far above her haughty neighbours, China and 
Japan, yet despises her chief glory, considers the 
Ernmun as it is called unfit for scholars and gen- 
tlemen, relegates it to the common and vulgar and 
writes its official documents, its gentlemanly 
calling cards, and its scholarly books all in indefi- 
nite, difficult, sight-ruining Chinese. 

A Korean gentleman would scorn to read a 
book, or write a letter in any character but Chi- 
nese, but since missionaries have come they have 
printed the New Testament and the hymns that 
the people love in the Ernmun and are trying to 
teach them what a jewel they have hidden away 
there in the dust. 



28 The Boy's Arrival 

And now our little man, having been thor- 
oughly named according to both American and 
Korean ideas, with a childish ai-myeng, Tomp- 
kins, a formal American name in the Legation 
books and later in Grove Church, N. J., sessional 
records, and a formal Chinese three character 
name, began his career, all three of him. Intel- 
lect, Affections and Will. They were each of 
him, very small as yet, and centred chiefly round 
his bottle, for howled he never so loudly intellect 
knew in an instant the light sound of the step 
that was bringing it, and when it came the taste 
and look of it without a doubt. A vigorous will 
made itself heard in most unmistakable terms, 
when said bottle was desired, and the loving little 
grunt with which it was clasped and caressed, 
plainly indicated where the affections were thus 
far located. 

Which reminds me, Korean babies never have 

bottles, or never did, till we westerners came and 

^'^ taught them our higher civilization. The re- 

^ markable fact is that Koreans do not use milk at 

^ all. Their cattle are simply beasts of burden, 

carrying great loads to market, or dragging the 
unwieldly ox-carts, or clumsy plows. No milk, 
no butter, no cheese, buttermilk, whipped cream, 
charlottes, ice cream, cream gravies, the mind 
runs over an endless list of delicious articles of 
c food and tries with dismay to think how a whole 

o nation can exist without them. It seems passing 



Milking a Korean Cow 29 

strange when one looks at the poverty of the 
people, that this nourishing food is utterly un- 
used, and yet it may be that there is wisdom in 
it, born of ancient experience. 

When one reads the reports of the New York 
Health Commissions, and that during one sum- 
mer one baby out of every four which was fed 
on the ordinary dairy milk died, and that milk 
is the most dangerous medium for bacteria, who 
would have the temerity to urge these people, 
who have no health boards, know^ nothing of 
sanitation, and have no means or laws for en- 
forcing it, who I say would be bold enough to 
urge them to use milk? 

These great cattle give very scanty supplies of 
it at best. Seven quarts of milk a day would be 
exceptional, and such an undertaking, to extract 
it from the indignant and insulted animal ! 

The cowl's legs must be tied, her calf right at 
hand (indeed he must start the performance), and 
then her head and avenging tail must be held by 
attendants, with another of course for her off- 
spring. She has never been subjected to such an 
indignity before, and is altogether suspicious of 
the whole performance. 

Korean babies who are so unhappy as to have 
mothers who cannot feed them — or no, I mean 
the mothers who are so unhappy as not to be 
able to give it to their babies — hire a yuwmo or 
foster mother, or else the poor little one must 



30 



The Boy's Arrival 



'*. 



die. I think Tompkins' mother fairly hated that 
bottle, she was so bitterly jealous of it, but he 
made such a terrible " yahdon," and gave no- 
body any peace, that at last, well, any one could 
have seen how it would end. 




II 

WHAT THE BOY FOUND 

Sometimes in the sweet, warm, autumn days 
when Tompkins went out for his airing, luncheon 
or tea would be served on the lawn, under the 
old persimmon-tree, for his father and mother 
both loved the garden and now his mother was 
not quite well, but kept growing weaker and 
weaker as Tompkins grew stronger, so the 
Captain hoped the sweet fresh air would make 
her better. It is my opinion that she was pining 
with jealousy about that bottle and Tompkins' 
affection for it. However, when they were all 
out there together, round the little tea-table, they 
looked as cozy and happy as they ought, and 
added just the touch the garden needed to make 
it quite lovely. I think the garden of Eden 
itself, would have been a lonely place without 
happy people in it, and perhaps, who knows, if 
Eve had had a baby like Tompkins, she would 
not have been idle and discontented, and ready 
to listen to the serpent. Fm sure that garden 
must have lost all its attraction when the sorrow- 
ful couple went away forever. The vines un- 
pruned would grow all in a tangle of stems and 
leaves, the wind would wail down the lonely 

31 



32 What the Boy Found 

alleys, where they used to walk, trees would 
toss their arms and sigh, their fruit uneaten, 
drop decaying to the ground, and the flowers 
unseen, would wither on their stems. I shouldn't 
wonder if the angels themselves deserted it. I'm 
sure the Wons' garden, with them in it, was much 
pleasanter. 

The house and garden to which this baby 
came, were very old. The house, at least part 
of it, was built over three hundred years ago. 
Its walls, like those of all native houses, were 
made of a sort of basket work of twigs with mud 
plastered on very thickly on both sides. Later 
it was cased in brick. 

In order to keep these mud walls from wash- 
ing down when it rains (and it does rain in 
Korea, sometimes ten weeks at a time), the roof, 
which w^as peaked, dropped very low over the 
walls, with extremely wide eaves, like a Korean 
gentleman's wide brimmed hat. If you have 
seen pictures of Japanese temples, you know 
just how that roof was shaped, with a coquettish 
little upward curl at the corners, quite giddy for 
a roof you know. The one on Tompkins' roof 
was covered with tiles of dark-gray clay, but the 
cottages of the poorer classes are covered with 
thatch, which answers very well, only it needs 
often to be replaced. The tiled houses, too, leak 
often in the rainy season, and every year before 
the rains begin, the Captain has to call in the 



I 



Korean Trade Unions 33 

tile-men, a guild who do nothing else, to look 
the roof over, and make needed repairs. 

They are very arrogant, will not touch a bit of 
mud or clay, or bring any of their own utensils, 
and even if your house is leaking like a sieve, 
they will not take the least pity on you, unless 
their own coolies are there to help them. And 
if you think their price is too high or their work 
careless, and have a difference with them so to 
speak, so that one set of men leave you in dis- 
pleasure, no others can you get, though you wait 
till your parlour is a pond or your bedroom a 
morass. 

The roofs rest on very heavy beams and 
rafters, which in the larger houses are quite 
picturesque. In the Captain's house the beams 
were enormous, black with age, and so hard it 
was very difficult to drive a nail into them. 
This residence had belonged to a wealthy and 
noble family, who for some reason had allowed it 
to fall into partial decay, and when the mission- 
aries came, they found they could buy it with the 
dear old garden, for a small sum ; and could with 
very little more, put it in good repair. It was 
merely what is called a bungalow, a one-story 
house, like all the native houses. Here again we 
see the need of western enlightenment. 

O poor Koreans ! If they could just once taste 
the joy of living in a three-story and basement 
house, with a dining-room under ground, the 



34 What the Boy Found 

nursery in the garret, all cozily in a *' block " of 
exactly similar dwellings, with a back yard 
twenty-five feet by twenty-five, overlooked by 
hundreds of neighbours ! Tompkins' Amonni 
hadn't a single flight of stairs in her whole 
house, and she had become so demoralized she 
positively liked it ! The walls were not more 
than eight or nine feet high, but in the middle of 
the room the roof-tree lay at least eighteen feet 
above the floor and looked even more. There 
were great brick fireplaces in some of the rooms 
that the Captain built in with his own hands, and 
when the dry pine was crackling and blazing 
(you see the poor things couldn't obtain gas logs 
out there), no cozier or more cheerful picture 
could be found. When the house was built, the 
floors were nearly all what the Koreans call 
Kangs ; that is they are made of stone and earth 
with large flues built in, so that with a fire lit 
from the outside, and a vent at the other side of 
the house, the hot air, not one breath wasted, 
circulates beneath or through the floor, till the 
stones are thoroughly heated and the whole 
room soon evenly warmed. These floors are 
covered with a thick oiled paper, and over these 
a few mats are laid. 

When you are not having a fire every day, how- 
ever, as the natives usually do, even in spring and 
summer, the floor becomes damp and unhealthy, 
and one by one the Captain had them all removed 



The Captain's House 35 

This wasn't a very imposing or sumptuous place 
as you may imagine, but just cozy and homelike. 
O how Tompkins' Amonni pitied the poor kings 
and queens when she walked through some of 
their palaces in Europe. Just to think of being 
forced to live in those enormous lofty concert 
hall sort of apartments or saloons (one would 
never call them rooms) full of stiff unfriendly 
great articles of furniture, with never a cozy 
nook, or quiet corner, or the least hint of any- 
thing remotely like a home. 

But thank heaven, the Captain's house wasn't 
that way. The floors were stained brown and 
partly covered with rugs ; in the parlour were a 
couple of divans and big armchairs, that the 
owner made with his own hands, using his bed 
springs for the seats. 

I hardly know which was the pleasantest of all 
the big low rooms. The bedroom was all baby 
blue and silver, with pale blue silk curtains, that 
came from her Majesty the queen, and furniture 
that Tompkins' Amonni had brought from 
America from her own old home, and there was 
a wide low window that looked into a conserv- 
atory full of flowers. 

The conservatory itself was the pleasantest of 
all on a winter day, when Tompkins' carriage was 
always wheeled out there that he might have a 
sun bath. 

There were people who belonged to the Cap- 



^i\ 



36 What the Boy Found 

tain and his wife, who would keep flinging" con- 
servatories, furniture, knickknacks, and all sorts 
of unnecessary but delightful things across the 
Pacific at them, just as they sent Tompkins' lug- 
gage. And after Tompkins came ! O my ! the 
packing boxes of toys, new clothes, etc., that 
laboured their way over those tens of thousands 
of miles ! 

I believe they loved the garden best of all. It 
was about two acres in extent and was surrounded 
by a mud wall, plastered over with yellow clay, 
and covered with tiles to keep off the rain. In 
some places this wall was covered thickly with 
Virginia creeper. Masses of this beautiful vine 
were draped all over it and the quaint gateway 
so that it was a charming picture. Then there 
was an old dead pine-tree just in front of the 
study, whose gnarled and twisted trunks, and low 
spreading branches were covered with white wis- 
teria which the Captain and his wife had brought 
from Japan, before they knew that wisteria is 
quite at home in Korea. 

Indeed they brought over two wisterias and 
some orchids and no end of ferns. They were like 
people insane with delight in Nagasaki, where 
flowers and ferns fairly riot, and prowled round 
the hills with a trowel and basket digging up 
just common old things by the roadside with ex- 
clamations of ecstasy. Then they went to the 
florists and nearly bankrupted themselves in 



The Garden 37 

roses, azalias, Japanese lilies, chrysanthemums 
and what not. The wisteria took kindly, no 
wonder, to their garden, and soon flung its beau- 
tiful foliage all over that poor old deformed tree, 
till not a bare black bough could be seen, noth- 
ing but a mass of the loveliest soft floating tender 
green : and in May, oh I then was its epiphanyc 
The tree was one mass of exquisite white blos- 
soms, from its highest branch to the ground 
where they lay in the piodigal profusion, that 
only God and His nature can display. Purple 
wisterias had been planted by two bedroom win- 
dows near, and as the white threw its arms across 
lovingly to them, and they reciprocally reached 
out to it, they met, and mingled with a little help 
from sympathetic human hands, forming a charm- 
ing bower by the study door. 

Tompkins' Amonni had that for one of her pri- 
vate oratories, and there she used to drink in all 
that exquisite beauty and let her spirit be lifted 
up, up upon it to the God whose Spirit brooded 
in those melting tints, delicate perfume and grace- 
ful forms, whose thought planned, whose finger 
formed and whose love sent them to her„ They 
were to her a letter from Father, the expression 
of His love, beauty and wisdom, and so here in 
this oratory, decorated as no monarch's on earth 
ever was, she worshipped and adored. 

In April and May Korea is glorious. All the 
environs of Seoul are sweet with the exquisite 



38 What the Boy Found 

fruit blossoms, peaches, apricots, plums, cherries 
and pears. 

Korean fruit itself, is not very nice (now I sup- 
pose I ought to stop and explain again) but the 
blossoms are lovely and Tompkins' garden was 
full of native peach, apricot and persimmon-trees, 
as well as American fruit trees. Korean fruit is 
rather hard and insipid, with fine flavour and in- 
stead of being acid is at times very acrid. 

Their apples (except the little Siberian crab) 
and pears are all woody, and fit only to be eaten 
after having been cooked with a litde vegetable 
acid and sugar. They have however a kind of 
white grape which is very nice, a very juicy and 
pleasant red plum, and the best persimmons in 
the world. In addition to fruit tree blooms, the 
country fairly revels in blossom beauty in May 
and June. 

The hills are all ablush with rhododendrons, 
and a dear little eglantine with the daintiest per- 
fume riots all along the roads and fences. There 
is a virginal white honeysuckle that Tompkins' 
Amonni loved best of all, I believe, because one 
spring evening when it had been pouring rain 
all day, and she had been shut in, just a little 
lonely and homesick (that was when she lived 
quite by herself and wasn't a family at all) just 
about nine o'clock a great spray of this lovely 
vine, all dripping with rain was handed in at her 
door, with a note, which only said, " Compli 



Korean Blossoms 39 

ments of the rain and Namsan" (South Mt). 
It seemed as though the wind just softly pushed 
the door and the spirit of the dear rain just 
wafted it in. Because rain doesn't always mean 
bitter tears, often just those that bring the 
sweetest flowers to their best freshness and 
beauty. 

The only reason she didn't believe the rain 
alone had all to do with it, was because the 
handwriting was the Captain's. However that 
didn't really spoil it. 

But to return to the garden, from which we 
seem to be continually straying. It was lovely 
nearly all the year rounds First of all in the 
early spring were masses of yellow forsythia, 
then violets, and some of the first fruit blos- 
soms, then flowering almonds and white lilacs, 
wisterias, fluiTy greenish white snowballs, and 
two great bushes on either side of the front door 
of yellow roses that recalled grandmother's 
garden in dear America. In June came the 
roses in the greatest hurry to be seen, and, well, 
after that nobody could think of anything else. 
There was a whole hedge of damask rose- 
bushes ; they were cut every day by hundreds, 
every bowl, jar and vase in the house crammed 
with them, they were sent to all the neighbours, 
yet still they kept blossoming on and on never 
tiring, and the family could never keep up with 
them. And talk about busy bees ! You never 



"^ 



^ 40 What the Boy Found 

saw such busy bees as there were in the Cap- 
;;,' * tain's garden. They were so overworked they 

.,,"1 were in danger of neurasthenia and having to 

^J^l be sent to the sanatorium, worse still ! Such a 

humming you could hardly hear yourself think. 
^"^ But the damask roses were not the only ones, 

) T. there were some dark red ones, and some climb- 

ing pink ones, and some that grew in lovely 
little clusters of pink, white and deep rose 
colour. There were Marshal Neils and tea roses 
from America and pretty little Koreans. 

There was a big bush of eglantine near the 
gate, two or three glorious La Frances that 
0^ Tompkins' Amonni loved best and a big cab- 

bage rose that was magnificent. 

These people loved to work in the garden and 
everything the Captain looked at grew. Be- 
sides fruit trees, they had all sorts of small fruits 
and vegetables, for such things cannot be bought 
in Korea. The native vegetables were as poor 
as their fruit, perhaps because there are no in- 
structed and educated farmers. The natives live 
mainly on rice, the very poor use millet, and far 
up in the mountains where rice will not grow, 
potatoes are cultivated. Their kimchi or sauer 
kraut is made of cabbages w^hich are much 
coarser and tougher than ours, and busy indeed 
are the women in the season when it is " put 
down " for the whole year. 

First of all the red peppers which are in- 



Native Vegetables 41 

dispensable are picked, and the roofs are 
brilliant with patches of them drying in the 
sun, for two or three weeks at that season. 
They seem to have gathered all the fire of the 
fierce July sun and to have stored it up against 
the cold time coming, as who should say 
*' Don't fear winter winds, frost and snow, I will 
put July in you up to the nineties." Then too 
there is a great washing of cabbages and tur- 
nips ; every little stream near the villages is 
crowded with men and women and children, 
washing hundreds and thousands of these 
vegetables. The rosy country women carrying 
great round baskets of cabbages on their heads, 
with the fresh green leaves drooping all round 
their faces, look charmingly picturesque. 

After the ingredients are all cut up, they are 
packed with much salt in great earthen jars, 
where they remain out of doors all the year. 

No Korean considers a meal complete without 
kimchi and various are the recipes for its mak- 
ing, though the main articles are everywhere 
the same, cabbage, turnip peppers and salt. 
Their vegetables are limited mainly to these 
already mentioned, with a coarse kind of lettuce, 
onions, garlic, black beans, a very little coarse 
corn, and in some sections tomatoes, celery and 
a kind of wild asparagus. There is also a 
variety of squash which is not unlike our 
pumpkins, and which Tompkins' Amonni found 



0^ 



42 What the Boy Found 

made a fairly good basis for eggs, milk, spices, 
etc., resulting in proper or almost proper Ameri- 
can pumpkin pies. Comparatively little wheat 
and barley is raised, in the country one often 
gets buckwheat as the only flour obtainable. 
There is not a flour mill in Korea, except one 
run by a foreigner in Chemulpo. 

In truth there are no proper factories of any 
kind. Silk raising and weaving is done in small 
quantities in the homes, and so it is with cotton 
cloth, shoes, hats, and other wares. Certain 
localities are noted for producing particular 
things, as brass which is largely made in the 
north, near Anjou. Their paper has been made 
from wood fibre for ages, and is very strong. 
They possessed the art of making fine crockle 
ware glaze on porcelain, but this has been lost. 

Castor oil plants from which each family (in 
the country villages) presses out its own oil, and 
cotton and tobacco are raised in large crops. 

Tompkins' Amonni however couldn't take much 
interest in the garden that year. She grew^ weaker 
and weaker, nothing could she eat, and became 
so thin and wan that the doctors whose medicines 
did no good began to look grave. I think she was 
a little concerned about it too, for this was what 
was written in her diary: " ^ Lei not your heart be 
troubled^ ye believe in God^ believe also in Me. 
In My Father^ s house are many mansions^ if it 
were not so I would have told you. I go to 



Sickness at Home 43 

prepa7'e a place for yoii.^ Our Lord said * let 
not your heart be troubled about My death or 
your own, do not imagine this dwelling is the 
only one your Father and Mine has. This earth 
is only one of these rooms in His house.' When 
we say good-bye here we do not go out into a 
cold and dark unknown, we go to one of these 
other rooms which He has gone to prepare. 
What peace comes with the thought ! And how 
reasonable and natural that the Almighty should 
not have exhausted His powers and resources in 
this one world. Many mansions. Yes, there are 
other places, full no doubt of happy glorious 
beings, an innumerable company of angels.^ the 
church of the first-born^ made perfect and our 
own home folks, dear familiar faces, not only 
strange angels and lofty cherubs whom one has 
never met. A place. Not indefinite, intangible 
' somewhere in desolate mind swept space ' but 
a place where resurrected bodies shall live in 
endless delight. 

"As for the present fate of the poor sick body 
it would not be so bad to go back to dear mother 
earth and become part of the flowers, grasses, 

birds, glistening leaves, sunsets, rainbows 

And that seed of the new celestial body, God 
will care for, and I know that my Lord who has 
made this life so sweet has far better in store. 

" He who gave me such noble human love here 
is better than the creatures of His hand and since 



44 What the Boy Found 

all my life He has brought me through the dark 
valleys I dreaded, and over the hard places so 
easily, and made it all better than my hopes, not 
to mention my fears. He surely will bring me 
through the last trial of all triumphantly. To see 
Him as He is will be beyond all else joy, will 
check all tears, and carry me to the Seventh 
heaven." 

But though Death came near and hovered 
close for a while, the mother was not to go yet, 
but they all had to take a sea trip to China; the 
Captain, Tompkins' Amonni, Tompkins and 
Om. 

Om was the cook, but as he was a good- 
natured, kindly fellow, they took him along to 
help with Tompkins as it looked as if it would 
take all the Captain's time to take care of the 
mothen Om didn't begin very well however, 
for at the first motion of the steamer he promptly 
succumbed and was neither seen nor heard from 
till all were ready to land in Chefoo. 

But I am going ahead a great deal too fast, as 
usual, so I must go back a little. 

When all were ready they started from Seoul, 
mother and baby in a sedan chair, carried by 
four men, two in front, two behind. The Captain 
was now on horseback, now on foot because most 
ponies go too slowly for him, who didn't mind 
swinging over forty miles a day. The trunks 
and baby carriage jogged along on men's backs 



A Fighting Pony 45 

for the wonderful Korean ''jim-kuns" can carry 
almost any weight for long distances. 

The Captain's horse was a terror, his one idea 
being to fight any and every other pony. 

While waiting at a little village for a sharp 
storm of rain and hail to pass, his fiendship 
broke his halter; there was barely time to get 
mother and child out of harm's way when off 
he tore down the road after a party of mounted 
foreigners, who were followed by their Chinese 
cook, on a shabby little native pony. 

To their shame be it said, that glancing be- 
hind and seeing the snorting fury in their rear 
they left the poor cook to his fate, dug spurs in 
their foreign horses and fled for dear life, never 
even drawing rein, when at a safe distance, 
another glance showed the terror-stricken little 
Chinaman on the ground and the fiend, fiend- 
ishly kicking the skinny pony, both of them 
rending the air with unearthly squeals. This 
brief inglorious victory led to the capture of the 
assailant however. 

Do not suppose that the Captain rejoiced in 
the possession of such a creature as this. It was 
only borrowed for the occasion and promptly 
returned. The *' half-way" house on the way to 
the port was just a little Japanese bungalow with 
three or four rooms and a shed for horses. Some 
great and mighty foreign official, with a numer- 
ous train, had engaged it for the night, so the 



46 What the Boy Found 

Honourable Tompkins and his attendants con- 
tented themselves with a little shed-like room 
which had been built on as an addition. 

The Captain had sent a cot bed in advance for 
his little sick wife, Tompkins reposed in his own 
carriage, which no one would dream of leaving 
behind, and, as for the father, it never mattered 
to him where he lay if not too far from the others. 
But the most surprising thing was the conduct 
of Tompkins' Amonni. She had scarcely swal- 
lowed a morsel of any food for more than a week, 
and yet when she reached this place after a twelve 
mile ride in the pure fresh air, and saw her hus- 
band eating ham and eggs, ham which she had 
neither seen nor tasted for nearly three years, she 
yearned, she ventured, she ate, and those con- 
trary and rebellious internal members, which had 
inhospitably refused to harbour a cracker or an 
ounce of any harmless food, actually submitted 
meekly, and with a few complaints to this very 
objectionable and reprehensible article of diet. 

And now the Captain was indeed light- 
hearted. Sure, the home mother would be well 
again ! So that night the tiny little room was 
better than a palace or cathedral, for it was a 
home, with father, mother and child, all bound 
together by the purest and strongest ties on 
earth. 

It was a church, for it was a place of devout 
worship, humble gratitude and earnest love to 



OfF for Chefoo 47 

God, and faith in Him ; and it was a taber- 
nacle, for He was there whom we all worship and 
adore. 

Next morning they set forth again, and in a 
few hours were embarked in a little Japanese 
steamer bound for China. It sounds like a trip 
round the world, but is, from Korea, really no 
further than from New York to Charleston. 
Tompkins' carriage, deprived of its wheels, made 
a convenient and steady berth, and " steady " was 
the word, for it did not apply to the ship in any 
degree whatever. 

From the time she left port, her gyrations and 
gymnastics were such as to excite the wonder, 
but not the admiration, of her passengers, or 
even of her hardened crew. It was " the tail end 
of a typhoon " they said, and the Wons opined, 
that probably typhoons like scorpions, carry their 
worst stings in their tails. At any rate they were 
quite sure that with anything worse than the 
lashings of that tail, the little craft and all on 
board could never have seen land again. A 
thirty-six hour trip was lengthened to seventy- 
two, and for many hours the vessel hove to, 
hardly holding her own. No food could be pre- 
pared or fires lit in the galley, but this was a 
matter of the least concern to most of the pas- 
sengers, who were all in bed, or the officers and 
crew, who were all too busy. But there was one 
to whom it was of vast importance. His Majesty 



48 What the Boy Found 

slept placidly through all the tumult, but waked 
regularly every two hours and demanded his 
bottle, got it, and calmly disposed himself to 
slumber again. 

O for the calm trust of the little child, like 
that of the Master who lay asleep in the hinder 
part of the vessel when the storm raged on 
Galilee. 

The tumult was terrific, the awful roar of wind 
and wave like nothing else, and which only 
those who have experienced such a sea, can ap- 
preciate. 

The thundering of the great waves which 
seemed bent on the destruction of the gallant 
little ship, the rattling, creaking and straining of 
the vessel as she battled for her life, or shivered 
after a fearful blow, the rushing, trampling feet of 
the crew, and the hoarse shouts of command, 
mingled with the bellowing, growling, shrieking, 
moaning of the wind, made up a combination of 
fiendish noises, which all the furies at their w^orst 
could never have rivalled. 

All this is not a desirable thing to experience 
and the helpless landsman is inclined to feel that 
he is swinging by only too frail a thread over 
the fathomless abyss which is reaching up with 
foaming maw to receive him — even as though 
he were a mouse dangled over the open mouth 
of a hungry tiger. 

Though the mother began to mend after the 



Chosen or Tai Han 49 

ham and eggs, and still more after the sea trip, 
she was so weak that she must be carried up and 
down-stairs for many days, and could scarcely 
walk even a few steps, but the Captain was 
trained nurse, doctor, lady's maid, caterer and 
amusement committee for the party, and when 
his manifold duties were all done, he read 
Dickens to the family, Tompkins rippled out as 
uncontrollable and contagious ha ha's, when the 
jokes came in, as the rest. His mother unblush- 
ingly asserted it was because he heard them 
laugh, and supposed that was in order, but the 
Captain stoutly held it was an evidence of the 
superior intelligence of the baby, who began by 
saying '' Dad " the day he was born, and con- 
tinued very properly, by appreciating Dickens at 
two months of age. 

They spent the bright November days on the 
sands at Chefoo, watching the glorious surf and 
drinking in the bracing salt air and in a little 
while the fear had quite passed for that time, 
and back again they all sailed for their own little 
" Chosen " land. They always thought it a most 
suitable name for that country, which though it 
only meant " Morning Calm " to Koreans, meant 
English " Chosen," to them. The place God had 
chosen to send them, as He sent Abraham, and 
the place He had chosen for them, the land He 
had chosen to bless, the chosen or choicest of all 
eastern lands, and mission fields, the people He 



50 What the Boy Found 

had chosen as His own forever, and so on indefi- 
nitely, deHghtfully, with a blessing in every facet 
of the name that spelled Korea. They were sorry 
enough when ten or fifteen years later the rulers 
grew vainglorious and called the dear little 
country *'Tai Han" (meaning Great Nation) 
suiting it about as well as the Captain's garments 
would have fitted Tompkins, and the cruel irony 
of which in view of its utter helplessness could 
only at best provoke a sigh of regret. 

Now I suppose you will at once ask its size 
and population, so I must wander off again, into 
eternally recurring explanations. It has an area 
equal to the combined areas of New York, Penn- 
sylvania and New Jersey, and a population of 
from ten to fourteen millions. 

In taking census, the government only reck- 
ons houses and reckons five people (children and 
adults) to a house, which is not an overestimate. 
For many years China claimed suzerainty over 
them and received a small tribute each year, but 
since the Japan-China War, up to the present writ- 
ing, Korea has been nominally independent, 
though alternately under the actual protectorate 
of either Russia or Japan, and now lies a helpless 
bone of contention between the two, who like a 
couple of hungry dogs lie watching it, snarling at 
each other, each ready to spring and devour it. 
Poor little *' Great Han " can do nothing but hope 
that some other great Power will come to the 



Tompkins' Descent 51 

rescue, while foreigners of other nationaUties who 
come to prey upon her, openly aver she is ** only 
a sponge to be squeezed and thrown away." 
Such are the breed of cormorants made up of only 
pockets and stomachs, who flock to the East to en- 
rich themselves, at no matter what cost to the poor 
natives. But before these lines are read Korea's 
fate will probably have been decided, so I will 
write no more on the subject, but return to 
Tompkins who was becoming more and more 
bewitching every day, and was the dearest little 
dimpled, dumpling darling of a baby, with a cun- 
ning little double chin, and the jolliest little laugh 
you ever heard. 

It is perhaps a question to what the credit for 
all these attractions is due, for his father, though 
an American citizen, was English by birth, his 
mamma was an American, some of whose ances- 
tors' names were written in Dutch in the quaint 
old records of the oldest Dutch Reformed Church 
in New York, and some in the passenger list of 
the Mayflozver. But Tompkins was born in 
Korea and when he was older and went to 
America the second time the boys called him 
*' Chinky Chinky Chinaman " and said he could 
never be President, which was galling. 

But we will hope that some of the good steady 
going qualities and dogged persistence of old 
John Bull, and the life, energy, brilliance and in- 
dependence of the New World, and the patience 



^c 



52 What the Boy Found 

and calm of the East, may all have been be- 
stowed upon him by these great fairy godmothers. 

But as I was about to say Christmas time was 
approaching, and it was decided in family con- 
clave, at which he of course assisted, that he 
must have a Christmas tree though he was only 
four months old, and that all the babies and little 
folks belonging to Americans and Europeans, in 
the town, should be invited. But it is no easy 
matter here, in Korea, to get trees. 

The poor around the city, where trees are quite 
scarce, cut them down so fast for fuel that the 
cutting of trees has been forbidden by law, and, 
unless one can be had from some one's own land, 
we must do without. Four days before Christ- 
mas and yet no tree ; then three days ; at last on 
the second day it arrived. I'm afraid some of 
our American boys would have called it a ''two 
for a cent" one, but it was large enough for the 
low rooms, and with it came large bunches of the 
beautiful mystic mistletoe so prized by our Eng- 
lish cousins, and long branches of evergreens. 
Tompkins' tree had been gaining in interest and 
importance for several days before its arrival, and 
no less than three other engagements had been 
made for it, to serve expectant little hearts. 

A tree which bears such variety of fruits as a 
Christmas tree, is usually not expected to yield a 
full harvest on three or four successive days, yet 
this is what the extraordinarily good little tree 



A Christmas Party 53 

did. First, on Christmas Eve, a band of funny, 
cunning Httle Korean schoolgirls joined with 
their teachers, and circled round it, looking with 
wondering eyes at the bright lights and glitter- 
ing trimmings. Then they sat down on the 
floor, Korean fashion, and received their gifts, 
had their little feast of Christmas dainties, and 
were sent home greatly perplexed how to carry 
away all the goodies that had been given to 
them. The next day Tompkins' tree had his 
toilet carefully remade, new presents were 
fastened to his prickly old arms, new candles 
lighted to brighten his dark dress, and a lot of 
mischievous, bright, rollicking, long-haired, gaily 
attired little Korean boys came eagerly peering 
among its branches. They, too, received gifts, 
were feasted with goodies, and entertained with 
stories and pictures and sent away rejoicing. 
While the tree had been entertaining all these 
little Koreans at the house of one of our friends, 
Tompkins, through his private secretary, that is, 
mamma, you know, had been sending notes 
something like this : 

" Master Henry Augustus Won presents his 
compliments to Master John Brown and begs 
that he may have the pleasure of his company 
on Friday, December 26, 1890, at four o'clock. 

" Small and Early. 

" Chaperons cordially welcome." 

These little notes were given in charge of a 



J4 What the Boy Found 

Korean servant with what is called a ''chit- 
book," which is simply a blank book, with the 
names of those persons who are to receive letters 
or packages written opposite a space in which 
they sign their own names in token of having 
received such a letter. In reply came any num- 
ber of gay little acceptances. 

The cook put on his big apron and went 
diligently to work making tarts, kisses, cookies, 
pattie cakes, sandwiches, lemonade, etc. 

The family made the candy, which was great 
fun, especially as Tompkins presided. Beyond a 
doubt, Christmas joys seemed to be doubled and 
sweetened in this performance. Bottled lemon 
drops and nauseous Japanese candies were the 
only things then to be had for money in that be- 
nighted land, where, think of it ! the people have 
no sugar ! Fancy what that means ! No jams, 
jellies, cakes, pies, tarts or puddings; of course 
no ice cream or cream sodas. No sugar on 
their morning rice and no proper candy. They 
do have one kind, however ; a sort of substitute 
for molasses candy, pulled quite white and often 
full of little nuts, which is quite palatable. 

The rich people buy Chinese preserves and 
candied fruits, and they have delicious buck- 
wheat honey, so that they are not entirely with- 
out sweets. Foreigners however do not pat- 
ronize the native candy sellers very much, for 
when we look at the dirty fingers that make it, 



Trimming the Tree ^^ 

and the dirty places where it is manufactured we 
lose our appetite, and ask to be excused. 

So the Wons set their wits and fingers to 
work and made some fancy candies. Chocolate 
creams, caramels, pink sugar creams, cocoanuts, 
sugared walnuts, candied oranges and figs, so 
that there was quite a nice variety which looked 
like Huyler's best. The tree was put in the 
study and made gorgeous with silver bells, 
paper angels, tin rubies and emeralds, cobwebs 
of gold and silver tinsel, red bags of candy, and 
lots of candles, all of which, with the presents, 
had crossed seas from America, England and 
China to adorn the occasion. The presents 
were then placed on, in, under or near the 
tree. 

You see there was a movable partition be- 
tween the study and parlour, such as all native 
houses have, made of a light framework of wood 
covered with paper, a sliding door arrangement 
which can be entirely and easily removed. 

Then this was all closed so no one would 
know there was a tree in the house. 

Even when the Captain was a bachelor he al- 
ways had a Christmas party for the children, and 
when Pon Gabe came of course there must be a 
party for him, and that reminds me — but, well, 
never mind now, we mustn't wander away from 
the tree. 

A great blazing fire was lighted in the big 



56 What the Boy Found 

brick fireplace in the parlour, for what would 
Christmas be without that, to dance, laugh, sing, 
clap hands and bid all welcome? The room 
was all decorated with Christmas greens and 
mistletoe, and everything looked quite like a 
real Christian Christmas, as indeed it was 
though in a poor dark heathen land where no 
joyous light sends its starry rays through the 
night of ignorance, sin and sorrow, to brighten 
the lives of young or old. Almost before they 
could finish decorating the rooms, gay little 
voices were heard and the children came troop- 
ing along. Tompkins was dressed in his best 
and lay back in his little carriage smiling be- 
nignly on every one. Such a queer little com- 
pany. Little Americans from the missionary 
homes, little English from the consulate, little 
Russians, little chubby Japanese from the lega- 
tion, little German Americans, Canadians, one 
Korean and the very cunningest little Chinese 
baby you ever did see, all wadded up in such an 
amazing number of gay quilted coats he could 
roll one way as well as another, and could roll 
all day without hurting himself, and oh ! such a 
splendid red cap all decorated with gold beads, 
enough to delight the heart of the most exacting 
baby in the world. You may be sure Tompkins 
was glad to see that Chinese baby. 

Well, they played ''oats, pease, beans," "hide 
the thimble," etc., till supper time, and then all ad- 



Something for Every One 57 

joumed to the dining-room. Tompkins sat up 
at the table with Myrtle and Henry, and little 
China baby, but Catherine, who was really quite 
old (more than two years) was obliged to cry, 
she felt so insulted at being placed among the 
babies, and really it was very inconsiderate to do 
such a thing, so they apologized and gave her a 
place among the old ones of five and eight at 
another table. While Tompkins was entertain- 
ing his friends at supper, the partitions had been 
removed between parlour and study, the candles 
lighted, and there stood the tree all blazing and 
glittering. Such a clapping of hands, such shin- 
ing eyes ! Each of the babies had a rattle, each 
of the boys some trumpet or musical instrument, 
and soon the racket was all that a boy could de- 
sire, or Christmas time-honoured customs demand. 

Tompkins, who is very particular, evidently 
felt quite satisfied that it w^as all right, for he 
went fast asleep in the midst of it all, and I am 
sorry to say did not waken in time to bid his 
guests adieu. 

But Tompkins' tree had not yet completed his 
mission. More than a year ago some large 
hearted ladies in Missouri had sent a generous 
gift of money to the orphanage boys, and now it 
had been used to provide them such a splendid 
Christmas as they never had before. Warm 
worsted scarfs, knives, guns, swords, pocket hand- 
kerchiefs, towels, oranges, etc. 



58 What the Boy Found 

The boys were all invited to come to Tomp- 
kins' house to tea. They had rearranged the 
tree, and made it very pretty, and locked it in 
the study as before. In the supper room were 
long low tables for the little boys to take their 
supper on, or their " chenyak " as they call their 
evening meal, and on the dinner wagon and 
larger tables were large trays of bread, sweet 
crackers, cookies, cakes, tarts, etc., etc. At the 
appointed time one, the very smallest boy in the 
orphanage, came timidly in and inquired if the 
proper time had arrived for them to come ; on 
learning that it had he ran quickly down to the 
gate to inform his companions who were waiting 
all together to learn the result of his inquiries. 
In a few moments they had all entered, dropped 
their wooden shoes in the hall and were making 
their most humble bows, in their very best style. 

Speaking of shoes, don't imagine wooden ones 
are the only kind Koreans wear. They are only 
for mud and bad weather and while they are a 
little clumsy to get around in and very noisy, they 
protect the feet finely from wet and mud, and 
protect skirts too for they lift the wearer nearly 
two inches off the ground. In addition to these 
however there are straw shoes, used by working 
people, string shoes very neat and light, and 
used most commonly of all, and leather ones, 
which are according to taste yellow, white or 
red, with considerable decoration, and with very 



Playing Games 59 

thick heavy soles studded with large nail heads. 
These are used by people of high rank or those 
who have a good deal of money. All shoes are 
laid aside on entering the house, and the neat 
little feet in pretty white stockings look very 
nice. The stockings are cut from muslin cloth, 
and fitted to the foot. For very cold weather 
they are wadded, making everybody look as if 
they had badly swollen feet and ankles. 

But these boys' feet if swollen certainly didn't 
seem in the least crippled ; quite the opposite. 
Such a lively and brilliant little company, coats 
of cherry, blue, green, purple, red, white, with 
bright ribbons fastening their long braids. The 
Wons soon taught them some of our American 
games which they seemed to enjoy very much, 
and after romping about for awhile they were 
taken in to supper ; and when they had finished 
they were allowed, true Korean style, to put the 
remainder of the cakes and goodies into their 
capacious sleeves, to be enjoyed later. 

When we adjourned to the other room and 
found the tree waiting in all its glory, when the 
penknives, etc., had been appropriated by their 
joyful little owners, excitement was at its height. 
They sat speechless with pleasure. The boys 
couldn't remain long after that. They were ach- 
ing to return and enjoy their gifts, so they soon 
made their bows and farewells, the lights were 
extinguished, we all went to bed and to sleep, the 



6o 



What the Boy Found 



tree stood there alone and in the dark all night 
Early in the morning a dishonest servant robbed 
him even of his tinsel and paper finery. The 
master came and said he had served his day, 
and now he must be removed. So he was carried 
away and cut to pieces for fire-wood. But even 
then he blazed up merrily and made a delightful, 
warm, cheery fire, and even his ashes were used 
to brighten up the andirons till they shone as 
never before. Let us hope the life of the tree 
may be " typical " of Tompkins' life. 

Perhaps you expect me to say ** that was the 
end of Tompkins' tree," but it wasn't; there never 
will be any end. That is the beauty of it. The 
brightness and joy of it will go on forever. Good 
deeds, kind actions, sunshine, cheer and Christ- 
mas trees live forever. 




Ill 

PON GABE 

I'VE been wishing to tell you about Pon Gabe, 
all along without being able to find a place for 
him, but now the Wons are safely home, Christ- 
mas over and we can take time to go back a 
ways, and begin at the beginning. 

The Captain had started a home and school 
for orphan boys some time before, and quite a 
number of little waifs were gathered in ; among 
them, tiniest of all, Pon Gabe. 

He was not six years old, Korean count. His 
father who was a nobleman of high rank had 
been banished for some political offense, and his 
mother was supposed to be dead. I said Korean 
count because in that country ages are counted 
in quite a different way from ours. 

You are at once, as soon as bom, one year old, 
and if you happen to be born on the last day of 
the year, the next day being the first of the New 
Year, you are two years old. Then you are no 
older on your birthday than you were a month 
before, unless a new year has begun in the 
meantime. 

You see, one is just as old as the number of 
years, during any part of which, one has lived, 

6i 



62 Pon Gabe 

and a baby, born on the thirty-first of December, 
would, one year and a day later, on the first of 
January, be three years old. 

So poor Pon Gabe was really not more than 
four proper, honest, American years of age, when 
first introduced to Pastor Won, by his uncle who 
brought him to the school. 

Now the institution was very primitive, barely es- 
tablished, and there were no proper arrangements 
as yet for taking care of such little bits of fel- 
lows, who cannot even wash their own faces, or 
braid their own little pigtails. So he was only 
allowed to remain a few days, rather under pro- 
test, when his uncle was sent for, and told he 
must take him away, and take care of him. Now 
I'm afraid the wicked uncle's one idea was to 
get rid of the poor little troublesome fellow. At 
any rate, some time later, news came that the 
child was dangerously sick, and without ordinary 
comforts ; so although he was himself too sick to 
walk, Mr. Won hired a chair, and armed with 
some medicine, condensed milk, etc., went to see 
the boy. 

He found a forlorn little waif, wailing in a 
pitiful weak voice for food, lying on a mat on 
the floor, too weak to lift his head. When he 
saw the tin of condensed milk, he tried to bite it 
open with his teeth, and had been trying to tear 
off and eat the paper on the wall. It looked 
darkly probable that the uncle was intending to 



Will He Live 63 

starve the child to death, ratlier than bear the 
trouble and expense of his support. 

So Pastor Won decided to take him to his 
own home and try to save that feeble, flickering 
little flame of vitality that still glimmered in its 
frail vessel. 

Many others advised against this, when they 
heard of it, and saw the child. " He is too feeble 
and sick, he will surely die ; then the natives will 
accuse us of his death, and drive us out of the 
country," was their argument, and a forceful one, 
for as yet Europeans were not at all sure of their 
footing, in a country so recently and reluctantly 
opened. 

But Pastor Won felt he couldn't listen to these 
words of counsel, nor think of results where the 
path of duty seemed so plain, so he opened wide 
his heart and home, and took in the poor little 
lost lamb ''faint and hungry and ready to die." 

But it was a long pull for poor Pon Gabe. 
For days and weeks, life trembled in the balance. 
Faithfully his foreign friend cared for, and 
watched him. Though all the doctors de- 
spaired, his love never did, and at length, little 
by little, he began to crawl back to life. 

About all we could see when looking at him, 
was just a pair of great liquid, pathetic, black 
eyes, and the poor little skeleton frame of a tiny 
child. 

But with kindness and food, children soon 



64 Pon Gabc 

prosper, and ere long he was as happy, plump 
and bright a little fellow as could be seen any- 
where. He learned English with surprising 
quickness, speaking it like any foreign child, 
and this made him very helpful at times, espe- 
cially after Pastor Won's marriage, for Mrs. 
Won, who could not yet speak Korean well, 
used him as interpreter in telling the women the 
sweet and comforting words the Lord Jesus 
spoke for them. 

I'm sure these blessed truths must have gone 
home with much more power from the lips of a 
little child, of their own nation, than if they had 
fallen halting from the mouth of a foreigner. 
Sure God uses weak things to confound the 
mighty, and foolish to confound the wise, and 
does not despise small things. 

So they two, the little boy and the foreign 
woman, never thought what a hopeless task it 
looked, beginning to save a nation of ten mil- 
lions or more, but with just their poor little bas- 
ketful, only five loaves and a few small fishes, 
began feeding the multitude. 

Probably it was done in much weakness of the 
flesh, and most likely at times half heartedly, but 
so it was, Pon Gabe began to be a blessing. 

And when Tompkins came, how delighted was 
the little Korean, and as soon as baby could 
notice anything, how charmed he was with his 
little black-eyed native playmate, and into what 



Becoming Americanized 6j 

fits of laughter he went when Pon Gabe jumped, 
clapped his hands, turned somersaults, or played 
any of the innumerable antics he was adept in for 
the entertainment of the newcomer. 

He had now become quite an American, and 
talked about "going home to the United States," 
like the missionaries, and spoke of certain things, 
by association taking him *' right back to Amer- 
ica," of which he had only heard. 

He, however, never lost his ideas of caste, and 
was quite haughty, or else loftily condescending 
with the litde coolie boys in the orphanage, for 
which he had to be sternly reproved by Pastor 
Won, on more than one occasion. 

One rule, always adhered to, and most happy 
in its results with Pon Gabe, and later with 
Tompkins, was never to punish while angry, and 
never under any circumstances to deceive or mis- 
lead the child. 

They were never told bad medicine was good, 
or that teeth pulling would not hurt, or promised 
what was not intended to be given. They knew 
that the parental word w^as " yea and amen " 
wdthout fail. 

Adherence to these rules simplified things, 
made them more submissive under chastisement, 
and taught truthfulness in the best way, by 
example. 

I believe the Wons were as ambitious of win- 
ning the respect of these little ones, if not more 



66 Pon Gabe 

so, than that of all the world beside, and it cer- 
tainly meant much for all concerned. 

While the Wons were away for two years in 
America, Pon Gabe was left in school under the 
especial oversight of one of the missionaries ; but 
his relations who had been willing to cast him oflE 
in his helpless infancy, now that he knew the 
desirable English so well, and had served the 
missionaries as interpreter, in an important 
official interview, and thus proved he could be 
useful and profitable, spirited him away. 

About a year after the return of the Wons, and 
when he had grown old enough to control his 
own actions, he visited them, to their and his 
mutual delighto He was now attending govern- 
ment school and supporting himself in part, by 
copying and other odd jobs. 

He seemed as earnest a Christian as ever, and 
had grown a fine manly little fellow. He now 
regularly spent his Sabbaths and holidays with 
his old friends, when " little married man " often 
came too, and both were admired and revered 
by Tompkins. Of '' little married man '' more 
anon. 

After leaving school Pon Gabe obtained a 
lucrative position of trust in a printing-office, but 
still lived frugally, worked hard and remained 
true to his faith. 

Later he went to America with three other young 
Koreans, and there with assistance from Christian 



Fannie the Fox Terrier 67 

people, worked his way through college and 
graduated the third in his class, with high 
honours. 

Such in brief is the story of Pon Gabe. Just 
one piece of money lost and found, one stray 
lamb reserved from death. It was worth while, 
was it not, and I am sure if our ears were keener 
we should hear the echo of the joyous refrain of 
the angels over a ransomed soul. 

Before Tompkins arrived there was, besides 
Pon Gabe, another member of the Won house- 
hold. " Family," I was going to say, for Fannie 
the fox terrier was almost a personage. I'm 
afraid she was rather fickle, for while she had 
been the Captain's faithful slave till there was a 
prospect of a Mrs. Won, at that moment she 
transferred her allegiance to the future queen of 
the household. 

She brought much gibing, persecution, and 
unseemly mockery on the heads of the afflicted 
couple, by haunting the residence of her future 
mistress, where she lay for hours on the street 
door mat, thus publishing abroad what was in- 
tended to be hid from the public, for a time at 
least. She was known far and near by the na- 
tives and foreigners as the pastor's dog, so there 
was no doubt about the significance of her 
actions. 

There were then, and are even now, very few 
foreign dogs in Korea, and they are correspond- 



68 Pon Gabe 

ingly valued. The native dog is fed on a poor 
kind of rice, never petted or allowed to enter the 
living rooms, and almost never does such an un- 
heard of thing as to follow his master or show 
signs of affection for him. 

They appear to be quite lacking in any of the 
marks of civilization, shown by their Western 
cousins, and as a rule are cowardly and currish. 

They bark loudly and show their teeth, but 
slink away with incurling tail if an enemy, human 
or brute, comes too near. Some of them bear a 
strong resemblance to the spitz, and again there 
are many that carry all the marks of Scotch 
collies, and who it seems to the writer, must be 
the degenerate descendants of those clever and 
attractive animals. They have thick curly hair, 
bushy tails and sharp muzzles, with a look of 
sagacity, and when well fed, and well treated, 
they have proved to be useful, intelligent and 
affectionate. 

The puppies are the cunningest and most en- 
ticing little furry balls ever seen. And now I 
must divulge a sad fact. Most of the dogs are 
bred and kept only to be eaten. A certain season 
in the fall is the usual time set for slaughter, and 
then there is a tragedy in every neighbourhood, 
and an awful fate for thousands of poor dogs. 
They are dragged away by the dog butcher 
screaming and resisting, with terror in their eyes, 
and — well, let us draw a veiL 



The Use of Korean Dogs 69 

What a grand motto for a Society of Preven- 
tion of Cruelty to Animals lies in that nineteenth 
verse of the eighth of Romans, " The earnest 
expectation of the creature 7ca7teth for the 7na7ii- 
festation of the Sons of God'' I never look into 
meek, patient animal eyes, with that pathetic ap- 
peal which most of them have, without thinking 
of it. 

Nothing can be more touching than to realize 
that they are dumbly, patiently, looking for the 
day, when men who control their fate so largely, 
who alas are often more beastly and animal than 
they, shall become manifestly the Sons of God, 
and they and we, all be delivered together, from 
the bondage in which we all groan. But neither 
they nor w^e alone, for with us is He who is 
touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and 
that blessed Spirit agonizing unutterably. 

It seems easier when one thinks one's own little 
smart is part of the great whole, and that our 
poor lower brothers, the brute creation, and our 
great Elder Brother are all " touched by the feel- 
ing of our infirmities." 

Because best of all w^e know that there is a 
sublime Eternal Purpose in it, that is not, or need 
not be in vain. 

" That not a moth with vain desire is shrivelled in a fruitless fire 
Or but subserves another gain." 

How^ wonderfully those verses in that eighth of 



70 Pon Gabe 

Romans deal with the whole problem of suffering 
in all created things, how simple, how satisfying ! 

" The sufferings of this present time are not 
worthy to be compared with the glory that shall 
follow." " The creature was made sitbject to va7i- 
ity not willingly bzct by reason of Him who hath 
subjected the sa^ne in hope^ because the creature 
also shall be delivered from the bondage of corrup- 
tion into the glorious liberty of the childre^i of 
GodP 

For canines in Korea, there are no laws of any 
kind so far as I am able to discover. Many mad 
dogs run the streets biting men and animals ; and 
many dogs not really so, are doubtless chased to 
madness by alarmed crowds and stoned to death. 
Even while these lines were writing, four Euro- 
peans, and several Koreans, were bitten by rabid 
dogs during one week. Muzzles although used 
for cattle and horses are unknown for dogs, 
pounds and licenses unheard of, and the only 
check therefore to the dog nuisance is the slaugh- 
ter I have referred to. On the other hand pup- 
pies are rarely drowned or killed as they are too 
young to eat, and to destroy them would be 
wasting so much food, so dogs abound to a far 
greater extent than cleanliness, comfort or safety 
would allow. No Korean family is without at 
least one. 

But Fannie was an animal of quite another type 
than these poor creatures, with all the spirit and 



A Fire-Cracker Diet 71 

sagacity of her brilliant ancestors. She owned 
an affectionate heart, and a good strong will too, 
for, from the day when she attached herself to 
Mrs. Won, till her untimely death, she never 
could by persuasions, threats or force, be induced 
to leave the house if her mistress were in it, or to 
remain there when that lady went forth. 

She was a plucky little creature, and when fire 
crackers were set off in celebration of the Fourth 
of July, no doubt supposing them to be from their 
insolent yapping, some kind of *' Kwesin " (evil 
spirits), she flew at them and taking a blazing 
string of them, while still exploding, in her brave 
little jaws, shook them like so many rats. 

Thereafter her mistress, terrified for the safety 
of the creature, had her held during the further 
exhibitions, but this was no easy matter, for fran- 
tic were her efforts to reach and destroy the en- 
emy. She no doubt felt that the family for whose 
safety she was responsible were in terrible dan- 
ger, and that she must meet and battle with this 
one at all costs. She was a faithful little friend, 
and they all appreciated her devotion. 

So at length you have been made acquainted 
with the Won household. Master, mistress, chil- 
dren, nurse, cook, and even the dog, as well as the 
house and garden. 

And now, in spite of the joy the little son 
brought, a Shadow began te lengthen again in 
the home. Sickness and Pain walked in unin- 



72 Pon Gabe 

vited. Fever sapped the strength of Tompkins' 
Amonni and pain held her every day in his grip, 
that would not loosen. What was worse he said 
he had come to stay. He whispered in the night 
in so loud a whisper, that she thought it might 
be heard through the whole house, that she should 
always be crippled, and never again be free from 
his company, never be strong or well, and always 
need to lean on others for aid. 

The Captain was away when the hard words 
went whistling like knives through the night air, 
or he would have hushed them, or made the 
woman forget them with his cheery presence. 
As it was she almost forgot them ; taking care of 
Tompkins, and singing to the baby, kept her 
own heart from failing altogether. 

She often felt too that she could well aflord to 
sufTer when her pain was like a musician, that 
with wondrous skill touched the keys of other 
hearts and drew forth divine strains of love, 
sympathy, tenderness, helpfulness and unselfish- 
ness, so that through and because of it, the 
whole household, and circle of friends were more 
heavenly and Christlike. 

Pastor Won had been obliged to go away on 
important mission business, before his wife grew 
so very ill, and was forced to be gone a long 
time, it seemed ages to her, it was three infinite 
weeks. For you see even time can be infinite, 
in height and depth, if not in length. 



Captain's Return 73 

Every few days a telegram came and some- 
times a letter, but absence was hard to bear 
especially at a time like this. 

When it was time for the husband to return in 
the insane little Japanese steamer, along the 
most dangerous coast in the world, where sub- 
merged rocks, narrow channels, treacherous 
currents, high tides, and blinding fogs, combine 
to destroy the traveller, the March winds 
shrieked for three days, sweeping in fury over 
land and sea. 

Tompkins' Amonni never slept those nights; 
her heart was tossing about on the sea with that 
little steamer. Far out to the black, roaring 
ocean the sailor turned his boat, right into the 
raging deep whose billows were safer far than 
the treacherous rocky coast, and all through 
the storm God held the frail little bark and 
its inmates safe. 

Safely back to port they came, and when Mrs. 
Won's Captain opened the door, and walked in, 
hearty, ruddy, smiling, a perfect reservoir of 
good cheer, strength and hope, she came to 
port too, with small delay, and once there, felt 
that all the storms in the world could not dis- 
turb her calm. 

Yet even so, disease was not to be ousted, or 
pain driven away, and therefore, at length 
reluctantly, these people came to realize they 
must obey the doctor, leave their work and 



74 Pon Gabe 

adopted country, and return across the great 
ocean to the home land, if perchance Hfe might 
be saved. And then how the kindness welled 
up and overflowed ! Everybody helped. Gar- 
ments, curtains, bedding, linen, carpets, must be 
wrapped up with camphor, insect powder, 
tobacco and red pepper, and packed in zinc 
lined boxes. Mattresses must be swung from 
beams in the ceiling, to keep off rats, china 
must be nailed up with care in boxes, and stores 
of canned milk, butter, meats, vegetables, fruits, 
etc., must be sold. 

Warm travelling things must be made for 
Tompkins and his Amonni, who now could do 
nothing but try to suffer patiently. Those who 
looked at the emanciated form and sunken, 
ghastly features, never thought to see her again, 
and did not even believe she would reach Japan, 
but God's plans were different. 

Little by little under the reviving influence of 
pure ocean air, and constant care, the pain and 
fever relaxed a little, and she began slowly to 
amend. 

Reaching America how dear and beautiful the 
look of the veriest hovel, that belonged to home 
land ! The unseemly outskirts of the city, the 
very wharves seemed to wear a peculiar and 
special grace, for be it ever so humble, there's 
no place like home. 

No familiar face as yet greeted them, no loved 



Back to America 75 

voice blessed the ear, but it was enough just at 
first, all they could bear, perhaps, surely all they 
needed, to see a whole town, full of white people, 
real Americans, their own dear compatriots, and 
to hear the familiar accents of their own native 
tongue. 

They lingered awhile, near the Golden Gate 
for Tompkins' Amonni to gain more strength 
for the long overland journey, and then slowly 
made their way eastward, to meet the inexpress- 
ible joy of reunion with those who were left in 
heart throes of anguish years ago. It seems a 
litde odd, that to reach western countries from 
Korea, Japan and China, we usually travel east, 
but that is what the Wons had been doing for 
more than a month. Pastor Won was sent for 
hither and yon to tell Americans about the in- 
teresting people and the open door in Korea, so 
sometimes it was in the south, sometimes in the 
far west, sometimes on the Atlantic seaboard, 
that Tompkins' Amonni and he journeyed, and 
it was not long before the little boy's assortment 
of nurses was quite large. 

After a long stay in America Mrs. Won was 
sufficiently improved to return to Korea ; though 
not entirely w^ell she hoped she might even yet 
be of some use in helping Korean women up to 
the light. So they started back this time by 
way of the Atlantic, Europe, the Suez Canal and 
so round to Japan and Korea. 



IV 

KOREAN NURSERY LIFE 

Arrived in Nagasaki our friends, the Wons, 
found themselves nearly out of money, as 
travellers are not unapt to be after all the unex- 
pected extras everybody meets when taking long 
tours. They were forced to wait some days in 
Nagasaki and knew well the contents of their 
slender pocketbook would never satisfy the hotel- 
keepers. But they need have felt no anxiety. 
The Methodist Cornells accidentally coming 
down to the steamer received them with open 
arms, took them to their own home, where they 
loaded them with kindness, and sent them on 
their way rejoicing. 

They reached Seoul at last, finding a party of 
friends at the landing with a warm welcome, and 
a crowd of Korean Christians as well surged 
around them, each eager to be first with a joyful 
greeting to the *' Moxa." How good the look of 
the familiar white garments, how welcome the 
sound of the soft liquid speech, how dear the 
smiling faces of their flock. 

They always seemed so like sheep to Pastor 
Won and his wife, so ignorant, so helpless, so 
without resources, so unsheltered, surrounded by 

76 



At Work Again 77 

political, physical and spiritual enemies, and so 
sorely needing shepherding and folding. 

And when in the dusk, under the quiet stars, 
they all flocked out of church and down the road, 
before the pastor, their white garments dimly 
gleaming in the dark, especially the women with 
their white aprons over their heads, they looked 
not unlike a flock of sheep trotting leisurely fold- 
ward. 

Now that they had returned from such wide 
wanderings to their adopted country, their people, 
their work, and their friends, Korea seemed much 
more than before, like home. The Captain 
plunged into work, preaching, organizing, plan- 
ning, writing, translating, itinerating, urging and 
encouraging the native Christians, for there were 
millions of people living without God and with- 
out hope and going down to death unsaved. 

Nothing ; no condition could be w^orse than 
that, since to be without God and without hope 
is the very cause and essence of hell. Burdened, 
heavy laden with toil, sorrow, and sin, with none 
to help and no ray on the dark way, millions of 
people, our brothers, are existing thus, blindly 
struggling on. 

The missionaries were still very few, just a 
little handful of people, almost overwhelmed 
with what they saw, and the problems and 
responsibilities of the work before them. 

As for poor Tompkins he was having a hard 



78 Korean Nursery Life 

fight for existence. Whether he had a peculiarly 
cranky little digestive apparatus, or whether, as 
was more likely, the milk, which the Chinaman 
extracted from his ill-fed and ill-kept cows was 
unwholesome, the child could not manage his 
food, grew thin, pale and feverish, and was for 
months such a poor, pitiful, starved little creature 
that it made your heart ache. His prepared 
canned food gave out too, no more could be had 
from China or Japan, and weary was the waiting 
for the ship that was to bring life. There were 
long, awful nights of watching, when the weak 
pulse flickered like a tiny candle in too fierce a 
gale, but God shielded the precious little flame, 
so that it did not go out. 

Tompkins' Amonni tells in her diary of a 
little hymn, which he had learned to say, which 
was quite symbolic of his own life. He could not 
pronounce the sounds at all well, as you will see, 
saying " hyip^^ for ship^ etc. 

" A little hyip wath on the sea 
It wath a pretty hyight, 
It hyailed along so pleasantly 
And all was calm and bright. 
"When lo a torm began to wise, 
The wind blew loud and stwong ; 
It drew the cloudth akwoss the skies, 
It blew the waveth along, 
And all but One were sore afraid of 
sinking in the deep." 

But the Master rebuked the winds and the waves 



Hardy Native Babies 79 

**and quelled them with a word," and the small 
ship weathered the storm at last, but it was a 
very pale and weak little boy, who was carried 
out in the fresh air that fall, in his mamma's 
sedan chair. Many a time as Tompkins' 
Amonni looked at the hardy native babies, of two 
and three years, eating melons and cucumbers, 
rind and all, carried about in the cold autumn 
or even winter weather with scant wraps or none, 
her heart ached for her frail little blossom. 

Either these babies are all very hardy, or it is 
a case of the survival of the fittest, for they are 
exposed in such a multitude of ways, the wonder 
is, the race is perpetuated at all. 

Smallpox is their worst foe, though according 
to the mandates of superstition the spirit god 
who, as they believe, makes it a specialty, and 
distributes it around so impartially and gener- 
ously, is treated as an honoured guest and propi- 
tiated in every way possible. 

On the twelfth day of his stay, the heads of 
the family thus visited, after washing their whole 
bodies with pure water and with hands perfectly 
clean, bring a bowl of the purest water to be had, 
fresh from the spring, and pray before it to '' the 
distinguished highness," that he will kindly de- 
part, without working any evil to the little 
patient. Sorcerers are called in, a feast is made, 
and sacrifices offered, literally, to speed the 
parting guest. If the family are poor, they 



8o Korean Nursery Life 

make a small horse and bowl of straw, and fill- 
ing the latter with food, fasten it on the back of 
the horse and have it carried some distance 
for the use of the spirit, who it is hoped will take 
this broad hint, and depart with his provender. 

To make his journey easier a small paper um- 
brella is also sent with the horse, to shield his 
godship from the heat of the sun or the wetness 
of the rain. As when a friend of high distinction 
comes, the ordinary business is laid aside, and 
ordinary comers are dismissed unseen. The house 
is closed and a dignified quiet attends on the 
presence. After the disease is safely over, the 
scales which have fallen from the sores are care- 
fully collected and carried to some temple or 
shrine and there burned as a most acceptable 
sacrifice. 

Should the little victim die, it must not be 
buried till "the friend" has entirely left the neigh- 
bourhood, but is left above ground to remind the 
demon that he has taken his quota from that 
family, lest in a fit of forgetfulness, he should 
carry away another child. 

When a well beloved little prince was attacked 
wath this disease, the palace gates w^ere closed, all 
business therein came to a standstill, and hun- 
dreds of thousands of yen were spent in mollify- 
ing the smallpox deity. The sorcerers went into 
a trance condition, and told the royal family the 
wishes of "his Highness, the Sonim" (guest). 



The Smallpox God 81 

Money was thrown to crowds of poor in the 
streets, night after night, so that the child might 
have their prayers. When the god still lingered, 
it was learned that he yearned for an escort to 
Weeju on the northern frontier, and that when 
that was handsomely provided he would depart. 
Accordingly a train of horses loaded with food 
and valuable presents (attended of course by the 
sorcerers) were sent from Seoul to the north, and 
by the time they had reached the border, the little 
prince was convalescent. 

Natives are now, however, very generally ad- 
mitting the benefits of vaccine, and are glad to 
use it. Among them, children are the only ones 
attacked, for the good reason that all living 
adults have had it^ at least once. Few precau- 
tions are taken to prevent exposure, in fact they 
do not know how. Children are not counted, till 
they have had it, every one dreads and fears it, 
nor will they call a doctor or give medicine for it. 
At the Wons', they discovered one day, that the 
gateman's child had been sick with it for some 
time, and he coming into their dining-room every 
morning to prayers ! Again, the cook one day 
informed Mrs. Won that her — the cook's — baby, 
or rather the baby of the concubine she had kindly 
provided for her husband, had the smallpox, she 
having slept in the room every night, and calmly 
come forth each day, to prepare the food for 
Tompkins and his parents. 



82 Korean Nursery Life 

Again while holding a women's meeting in a 
street chapel Mrs. Won saw a woman holding a 
baby, very closely wrapped, which she found was 
sick with smallpox well developed. 

Pastor Won and his wife both seemed to be 
immune, and had no fear but for their Tompkins. 

Foreigners in Korea are so constantly liable to 
contagion and in such a variety of ways, with so 
few cases of the disease, that it is a wonderful 
vindication of the claims of vaccine. 

During seventeen years there were only seven 
cases of smallpox among all the foreigners in the 
country. Of these, four died, three of them being 
missionaries. Four at least of the seven had 
never been vaccinated, and in the other three 
cases evidence that their vaccination had taken 
was either uncertain, or it had been administered 
many years previous to exposure. 

Scarlet fever, measles, whooping cough and 
diphtheria are sown through whole villages with 
the same carelessness and ignorance displayed in 
the treatment of all disease. Dysentery, cholera 
infantum, and blindness claim thousands of vic- 
tims. One instance will illustrate how childish 
the people are. A little one suffering with a 
malignant and acute eye disease was brought to 
the dispensary at a stage when by active and 
prompt measures, a cure was still possible. The 
baby, for it was only two or three years old, was 
afraid of the foreign doctor and when an attempt 



Little Nurses 83 

was made to treat the eyes it was met with furi- 
ous resistance and the wildest outcries. The 
mother was then told to hold the child firmly so 
that medicine could be applied, but in vain. She 
could not bear to hear the child cry. 

The situation and the danger were explained 
but with no effect ; the childish parent preferred 
to risk the child's blindness, to resisting its strug- 
gles and screams, and carried it away to its 
fate. 

Babies when not six weeks old are often tied 
on another child's back and carried about thus for 
hours. Poor little tots, not more than six or 
seven, and looking only three or four, go tod- 
dling about, baby ridden, hardly able to carry 
their heavy burden, yet they rarely complain. 
Their hands being free, they play almost as vig- 
orously as the unshackled, the babies' heads bob- 
bing round in a way certain to bring an Ameri- 
can parent's heart into her mouth with consterna- 
tion, but viewed with perfect sang-froid by the 
Koreans. 

The little nurses often seem quite proud of 
the responsibility, and appear very fond of little 
brother or sister. 

The children of the rich have plenty of gaily- 
coloured and well-padded garments, but the poor 
are extremely thinly clad in the sharpest w^eather. 
I have seen little boys with only one thin cotton 
jacket, unlined, in freezing temperature, while in 



84 Korean Nursery Life 

summer, many boys under six go altogether 
unattired. 

Tompkins' Amonni one day saw quite a pic- 
turesque little chain of several such tiny boys, 
with laughing eyes and shining skin, dancing 
down the street side by side, each carrying a 
graceful lotus-leaf sunshade to shield his brown 
little body from the sun ; and from their minia- 
ture little pigtails to their tiny toes, not a gar- 
ment, not a thread interfered with their untram- 
melled freedom. Mrs. Won had two natures 
which strove mightily within her at times. The 
one was shocked, the other delighted. The one 
rejoiced in the picture with its unique eastern 
setting, in the childish grace, beauty of form, 
harmony of colour and infantile innocence and 
freedom, the other thought of the ignorance and 
vice in which these little ones were born, and 
which surrounded them like an atmosphere, saw 
the disease misery and filth that overshadowed 
them and a whole population, and wept. 

But as usual I have run far ahead of my poor 
little story which, do its best, can never keep up, 
and gets rather discouraged trying to be a story 
at all under such harrowing circumstances ; and 
no wonder, for between you and me, no story, 
much less such a little one, can compare to the 
interest that lies in such a queer old nation as 
Korea. Ever since Tompkins began on the first 
page he has had to hang back in the shade and 







HOW WOMEN CARRY BABIES IN KOREA 



The Sound of War 85 

give place to the countr}^ and it's evidently go- 
ing to be that way to the end. It isn't so bad 
either when a boy or a man can lose himself 
completely for a country or a cause. 

When I digressed he had been very sick and 
was just getting out. But even before that the 
Japan-China War had begun. There wasn't 
any real fighting in Seoul where Tompkins was, 
only once they heard the sound of guns, and 
that was when one July morning the Japanese 
came and took the city and the palace without 
bloodshed. But through the long, hot months 
of that awful summer, on account of the war, 
foreigners were confined within the city, which 
lies in a valley, shut in on all sides by mountains 
and overhung with miasma, which few cooling 
or purifying winds could reach. Its loathsome 
ditches filled the air with sickening odours intensi- 
fied by masses of decaying fruit and vegetables, 
which lay rotting everywhere. The palace was 
unconsciously nearing the terrible tragedy which 
was to end the story of the doomed queen. Many 
of the people had fled to the country on the first 
arrival of the army, hundreds of shops were 
closed, the streets seemed deserted ; an awesome 
calm, like that in the centre of a whirlwind, lay 
over the whole city. 

Sickness attacked the foreigners crowded to- 
gether in that humid atmosphere. Scarcely a 
family escaped ; dysentery and fevers were com- 



86 Korean Nursery Life 

mon ; and not only Tompkins, but the Captain, 
who seldom succumbed, was now sick. About 
a mile outside the wall, on a breezy hillside, was 
a native house with bushes and shade trees, but 
best of all pure fresh air, and this had been 
bought as a shelter for sick, outcast Koreans, 
many of whom used to be turned out to die, by 
cruel masters. But there were none there now, 
the war having frightened so many away, and 
thither the Won family were carried every morn- 
ing, and there they stayed till nightfall, trying to 
lay in large stores of pure air. Other mission- 
aries, too, sought that shelter for themselves and 
their little ones. More than one short grave was 
dug in the cemetery that summer, and many 
were the parents who clutched their little ones to 
their bosoms, not knowing how soon the Reaper 
would come their way, many the watchers who 
hardly dared hope morning would find all 
there. 

But with the fall came cool and bracing air, 
the rains stopped and the sick began to creep 
out, pale and wan enough no doubt. 

Before he could sit up in bed Tompkins had 
a birthday. Of course birthdays were never 
snubbed in such a sentimental family. On the 
contrary they were looked forward to for weeks, 
prepared for with great pains, and celebrated 
with all possible honour. So at this time the 
little invalid was carried into a sunny room full 



Tompkins' Birthday 87 

of August lilies smiling and nodding at him 
from all sides, so it really looked like a 
bower. 

The perfume and sunshine kissed Tompkins 
the moment the door was opened, and wished 
him many happy returns. He knew it perfectly 
well, though they didn't speak English or Korean 
either But that wasn't all, some one had wound 
up the music-box (one of the things grandmother 
had sent) and there the gayest, sweetest little 
tune was rippling out, all laughter and love. It 
mingled in the friendliest way with the perfume 
and sunlight, till it was hard to tell, in the general 
harmony, which was which. I suspect they were 
all really one, having one Source. 

Right in plain view on the music-box were a 
lot of gay little soldiers and other toys. He was 
an easily pleased little boy, and this would have 
been quite enough, but his Amonni was hard 
to satisfy. She wanted a party, and would have 
it. It was as the laws of the Medes and the Per- 
sians that there must be a party at least on 
Christmases and birthdays. Poor Tompkins 
could only eat patented, prepared invalid's food, 
but he wanted to see his little friends eating 
something nice ; so there was ice cream, a birth- 
day cake, lemonade, sandwiches, etc., all on a ta- 
ble close by the bed. Candles could not be 
bought or borrowed for love or money. Mrs. 
Won found she had only three. So two were cut 



88 Korean Nursery Life 

in half for the four years, and one nice one in the 
centre served for the life candle. 

When the little fellow was propped up on pil- 
lows and some of his best friends, not too many, 
came in softly, not to tire him, and ate the birth- 
day feast, he was supremely content. Each 
brought some little gift, some of their own books 
or toys, and ever so much love, and his heart was 
overflowing with joy, though he never tasted any 
mortal food but somebody's patent milk. 

*' Oleduster," his way of pronouncing Augusta, 
a beautiful little girl, five or six years older than 
he, was his Dulciana, and she came and sat by 
his side, kissed him, ate his cake and ice cream 
and bestowed upon him one of her favourite 
toys. Could greater bliss be asked? And Harry 
and Maurice, his two heroes, big boys of eight 
and nine, came too. They were Tompkins' 
ideals, the wholesome kind-hearted sort of " big" 
boys who do not despise or overreach little ones, 
and instead of snubbing or patronizing them 
treat them as equals. '/ Maurice," said his mother 
one day, " how did you know it would please 
Tompkins to be treated like a big boy?" "Ah, 
mother," said he, ''Mr. T. treated me that way 
one day, and I know just how good it felt." 

This party, I am sure, was the best medicine 
Tompkins had, for he improved very fast after 
that. About this time, no one knew why, he be- 
gan to resent his nickname . perhaps because so 



Dapple Grey 89 

many people laughed at it. His objections were 
so decided, it had to be dropped, and so he was 
sometimes called Harry, but very often Brown 
Eyes, for with his pale transparent little face, the 
great clear beautiful brown eyes seemed almost 
all there was of him. 

Brown Eyes and Dapple Grey were now four 
years old. The former had just come into the 
glory of his first trousers and pockets, and Dap- 
ple Grey had his first ornaments in the form of 
three large, magnificent red rosettes, one under 
each of his elegant long ears, and one on his 
intellectual forehead. He had a gay little red 
saddle cloth, too, and when Brown Eyes was 
mounted on his back, and they went ambling 
along, the child singing his favourite song, "Joy- 
shall, joyshall, joy shall wazh the day, when first 
I thaw the burden of my heart rolled away," and 
Dapple Grey flapped his short tail and long ears 
contentedly, they made a pretty little picture and 
an amusing one to the natives, who were accus- 
tomed to see only dignified personages of dis- 
tinction ride on donkeys, so they began calling 
him the "cheugen taiin" or "little great man." 

The friendly people seemed greatly pleased, 
and everywhere the little couple were followed by 
laughter, exclamations of applause and looks of 
amused surprise. 

Dapple Grey was very small, Brown Eyes not 
very large, and the Korean who led the donkey, 



QO Korean Nursery Life 

looked bigger than both of them together, and 
had to take a great many jokes from the by- 
standers on the subject, or as they would say, he 
had to eat a good deal of "yok" which means 
ridicule. It doesn't sound unlike "joke" you 
see, and doubtless is its second cousin. Koreans 
are fond of children, fond of jokes or "yok" — 
when they do not have to "eat it" themselves, — 
fond of anything, in fact, that will make them 
laugh, and forget their hard dull lives, so that 
Brown Eyes and Dapple Grey were almost as 
entertaining as a circus for them. 

What they will say to a real circus when it 
comes, and I'm told one is really on the way 
(this old world spins so fast), there is no telling. 
They sometimes have rope dancers and acrobats 
who are very clever fellows, and quite often the 
young Buddhist priests go about, performing, and 
dancing, flinging long ribbands about in such a 
skillful way, and with such wonderful rapidity, 
that they take certain shapes the players wish, 
whirling above their heads in the air. 

Koreans have no public places of amusement, 
no theatres, concerts, lectures, ball games, boat 
races, or any public meetings or gatherings. 
Missionaries have introduced religious services, 
and during the last year or two, Japanese have 
introduced a theatre ; and the Independence Club, 
started under the auspices of European trained 
natives, about six or seven years ago, organized 



Chinese Theatres 



91 



the first public poUtical gatherings ; but these 
proved dangerous, and were stopped. Chinese 
play actors are sometimes employed by very 
wealthy private individuals, and their exhibitions 
are something truly wonderful. They do not talk, 
but sing their parts, in a blood-curdling, teeth- 
on-edge-setting high falsetto, pretend to mount 
their fiery steeds by leaping high in the air, and 
then prancing round the stage on imaginary 
barbs, like children at play, cut off each others' 
heads in turn, and at once leap up again in an- 
other character. This goes on for hours and 
days. Tompkins' Amonni was once invited to 
the Chinese legation to see one of these displays, 
and sat from two till six, only to find that the 
first part of one play was not half finished, and 
all the time the monotonous wailing Chinese 
music (?) was going on with praiseworthy per- 
severance. She made her adieus and left, but 
heard afterwards that the play kept on till 
twelve that night, began the next morning and 
continued all that day. 

The actors, she concluded, must all be athletes 
of no common order, to go through such violent 
exercise, such a continuous series of leaps, 
violent deaths, and fearful contests, with such a 
trying strain of throat and lung power, for so 
many hours and not succumb. It is certainly 
wearisome beyond description to a foreigner to 
behold. 



g2 Korean Nursery Life 

Dapple Grey was one of Brown Eyes' birth- 
day presents, though at that time it was not 
certain whether he would ever be able to ride 
his little servant. About thirty thousand cash 
were paid for the donkey, though all together 
they did not amount to quite ten of your gold 
dollars. I hardly believe that cash will ever be 
spent for another donkey, in Seoul, at least ; for 
now since foreigners have been suggesting so 
many changes, silver money and nickels have 
been almost entirely substituted for cash, in the 
capital at any rate, and it is very nice indeed to 
be able to carry a little change about, without 
hiring a man to take it on his back as before. 
Not much use were dainty little American purses 
in those days; one would scarcely hold one 
cent's worth, and for five hundred dollars you 
would need a train of ponies. But Dapple Grey 
was worth his salt and his cash, too, and when 
Brown Eyes grew well enough, they two went 
down to the river Han four miles from their city 
home, for now the authorities had decreed it to 
be safe to leave the legation and the guards. 
Brown Eyes lived there in an odd little native 
house with his father and mother for several 
weeks. Dapple Grey stood outside and brayed 
so hard and kicked up his little heels so much, 
that none of the Korean neighbours would take 
him to board ; so a little shed had to be fixed up 
by the house where his master was, and quite 



Tompkins' Playmates 93 

often at night he would give a friendly call at 
the door to let them know he was there and wide 
awake. It wasn't at all necessary to sleep at 
night because he could easily take a nap any 
time while jogging along with Brown Eyes. 

The village boys all thought the little Ameri- 
can great fun. They never saw a child dressed 
so differently from themselves before, or one 
with such a delicate fair skin. They were much 
pleased to find he knew a few words of their 
language, and would run after him in troops, 
asking over and over how old he was (though 
they had been told repeatedly) just to make him 
talk. 

Little doubt American boys would have just 
as much curiosity about one of these Korean 
boys if he were suddenly to appear on the 
streets in one of their villages, and it is to be 
feared that they might not be as considerate in 
satisfying their curiosity as these heathen boys 
were. Every one of them wore his hair parted 
in the middle, and braided in a long pigtail, 
which hung down his back. At holiday times 
these braids are tied with fine new ribbands, 
which are made for the purpose, just the right 
length, and covered with bright gilt Chinese 
characters, meaning long life, happiness, riches, 
good luck, etc. They wore little jackets of 
muslin or grass cloth, called '' chogeries." 
Among the well-to-do, these are often made 



94 Korean Nursery Life 

of silk and very brightly coloured, preferably 
red, but often green or yellow, while for very 
little folks the sleeves are made of strips of 
every bright colour there is, and all so neatly 
pieced, that they look as though they were 
woven that way. In very cold weather the 
jackets are padded with cotton wool, nice and 
warm, and usually there is, besides, a touramachy 
or padded coat of gorgeous red. Sometimes I 
wonder if these little gay jackets are not de- 
scendants of Joseph's coat of many colours. At 
any rate, every boy is almost sure to have one 
for New Year's day, for his brother's or sister's 
weddings, and such state occasions. 

The padgies or long, full baggy trousers, are 
also padded for winter. They are white, shiny 
and glossy, from much pounding — not on the 
boy — more of which might do him good, but on 
a smooth stone or piece of hard wood. These 
trousers are fastened in with neat anklets and 
tied there with fancy ribbons for special occasions. 
Padded white muslin stockings and a pair of 
straw or string shoes complete the costume. 

But these country boys whom Brown Eyes 
knew, wore, almost up to Christmas, only two 
garments ; a thin grass cloth jacket, a pair of 
very coarse trousers of the same material, and 
straw shoes. 

They were funny, merry, hardy little fellows, 
with faces and bodies tanned dark brown by 



Korean Boys' Work 95 

constant exposure. Most of them had to work 
all the time, though like all boys, and especially 
those in the East, they managed to take things 
fairly easy, and to squeeze in a sufficient mod- 
icum of rest and fun. Some drove the litde pack 
ponies, with their loads of wood, vegetables, 
manure, etc., to market, riding back, sitting side- 
ways on the uncomfortable pack saddles, one boy 
often managing two or even three of these can- 
tankerous, biting, kicking, fighting, balking litde 
beasts. 

Sometimes with their handy " nat," a kind of 
sickle, they may be seen clearing all the road- 
sides, for far and near, of every weed, twig and 
bit of dried grass, or brush for winter fires. 
Sometimes they are busy for days watching the 
crops of rice and millet, driving off the maraud- 
ing birds, with threatening arms and loud out- 
cries. Many are the devices to which people 
resort to keep off these thieves. Little booths 
are built on hillocks, and points of vantage, 
whence, sheltered from the sun they can watch 
and dart forth to the attack. Regular spider- 
webs of long strings stretched in all directions 
are arranged, to entangle their wings, and pre- 
vent their flight. Scarecrows are frequently 
posted, or dead birds hung in full view as an 
awful warning to sinners. 

Some of the boys are candy sellers. In nut- 
ting season, at every corner are little nut mer- 



96 Korean Nursery Life 

chants with their charcoal fires and hot chestnuts. 
Some learn early to carry a little jicky, managing 
quite heavy loads ; many work in the fields, 
helping sow, weed and gather in the crops ; and 
some carry the baby around all day, until it is 
nearly big enough to carry the next one. 

They have their games and fun, too, and per- 
haps enjoy them more, because there is so much 
work. 

They will toss up a shuttle-cock, made of a 
piece of cash wrapped in paper, more deftly, 
with the side of the heel, than you or I would do 
it with a bat, and they will keep it flying, from 
one to the other, never letting it touch the ground 
once, for twenty minutes at least, often sending 
it ten or fifteen feet high in the air and never 
touching it with their hands. They fly kites in 
a wonderful way and have real battles in the 
sky ; one boy often will capture several in an 
hour, cutting it down with the saw-like cord of 
his own, which is stiffened with a mixture con- 
taining sand, or ground glass, held together by 
glue. The kite strings are only made like this 
for a few yards at the kite end. They have a 
game almost exactly like ''French and English," 
they play " blind man's buflf," in just the way 
Harry's American cousins do, and often play 
soldier, like all boys the world over. 

As for the girls, they wear their hair just like 
the boys, and wear a very similar '* chogerie," 



What the Girls Do 97 

but have instead of trousers, divided skirts, 
covered with a very wide-banded, full long apron 
of red, blue or white, which really takes the place 
of a skirt. Sometimes they wear two of these, 
and two chogeries, but they do not have the long 
overcoat. Their mothers often use one, putting 
it over their head and drawing it close round the 
face, the sleeves flapping down on either side, 
but the litde girls w^ear only their aprons over 
their heads when they go anywhere, which isn't 
often. 

Most of them are very much shut in and must 
learn early to sew, prepare rice, pound the 
washed clothes smooth, and do other house- 
work, but they teeter, swing, play ''cats-cradle," 
tell stories of tigers, tock gabies — brownies or 
goblins — and *' queeshins " (ghosts and spirits). 

They have a good many nursery and Mother 
Goose stories. See now if you can recognize an 
old acquaintance in Korean dress, as it was told 
to Brown Eyes by a native woman. 

A good little saxie who lived in the country 
started out one day, with her '' see amonni's " 
(mother-in-law's) permission to pay a visit to her 
mother who lived three miles distant across the 
mountain. She wore her white ** hankachima " 
or apron over her head almost covering her face, 
but bright eyes and cherry lips were now and 
then ''to be beheld things," in spite of all she 
could do. On her head she carried a neatly tied 



98 Korean Nursery Lite 

parcel of delicious, freshly made "dock," as a 
present to her highly honoured mother. 

Before she had gone far, barely out of sight of 
her see amonni's chip (house), forth from the 
mountains came a terrible great tiger. With as 
friendly an aspect, as it was possible for such a 
ferocious beast to assume, he approached her, 
asking in growling accents, that tried to be 
gentle and insinuating, but which really were 
blood curdling and almost made her poor little 
heart stop beating with terror, " Where are you 
going, pretty little one?" Now it is not the 
custom for saxies to reply, so she only hung her 
head and hurried along. But the tiger stepped 
along too, and nothing discouraged, ventured 
another question. 

*' What are you carrying there so carefully, my 
dear?" ''A loaf of bread for my dear mother, 
your Highness," whispered the girl, for this time 
his glance was so fierce and his tone so fearful, 
she dared not keep silence. 

''May I go with you?" said the tiger. "Do 
according to your own mind, your Highness," 
murmured she, well knowing that was what he 
always did. So they walked and walked for 
awhile, when the tiger said, "My stomach is very 
empty, can you not give me just a little of that 
delicious bread, which you are carrying ? " " Alas, 
your Highness, it is for my mother," said the poor 
little girl. She was in fact only fourteen and did 



Korcnn Red Riding Hood 99 

not look eleven. Upon this the tii^er looked so 
terrible, his eyes glared so fiercely, his hot breath 
like a furnace blast fell on her cheek, and his 
cruel claws looked so threatening that the trem- 
bling girl dared no longer resist supplications en- 
forced with such arguments, and reluctantly un- 
fastened her package, her unwelcome attendant 
looking on with greedy eyes, and gave him a 
third part of the beautiful loaf she was carrying 
to her mother. 

They then proceeded amicably nearly a mile 
further, but his tigerish appetite was very great, 
and not nearly satisfied, so again he begged for 
a portion of the dock. " Igo ! ^ my Lord, but how 
can I take so small a portion to my honoured 
mother, w^ho is a widow and seldom has dainties ? 
Permit me to refuse your Excellency this time." 
But the tiger was not to be quieted or refused. 
He was so powerfully insistent, that again the 
bread had to be divided, and the despondent 
saxie with sinking heart, saw it disappear down 
the awful red gulf, that served for his throat. 
Still he seemed only half satisfied, and long ere 
they had completed the third mile, in fact ere 
they came to the brow of the hill, he demanded 
and obtained the third portion, so that now 
poor Pock Sungie^ had nothing to offer her 
mother as a proof of her love. Now it was un- 
avoidable that, in reaching up and taking down 

» Exclamation commonly used, 2 Peach, 



loo Korean Nursery Life 

her bundle, untying, retying and replacing it three 
distinct times, the chima ^ should not have been 
displaced and disarranged and that the tiger 
should not have seen the great beauty of the 
little saxie. Her well oiled, combed, and braided 
hair, her delicate eyebrows, smooth skin, shining 
almond eyes, above all her dimples, her dainty 
little hands, and pretty rounded arms did not es- 
cape him, and now that the bread was all gone, 
and his appetite rather sharpened than in the 
least satisfied, as they would soon come to the 
brow of the mountain whence they would descend 
and be seen perhaps by those in the valley below, 
and as the little girl's home was now not far off, he 
decided to delay no longer, so with a horrible 
growl he sprang upon poor Peach Blossom and 
devoured her in a moment. He then put her 
pretty red skirt over his head, and trying to mince 
along like a young girl made his way to her 
mother's cottage. If any one had seen him they 
would never have supposed it was poor Pock 
Sungie, with those terrible hairy legs and cruel 
claws, striding, and slouching crookedly along 
below the girl's dress. But no one did see him, 
I'm sorry to say. He reached the cottage door, 
and roared " mun yere chusio." '' Please open 
the door.'^ *' Who are you ? " was the reply. '* 'Tis 
I, your Pock Sungie come with a fine loaf of fresh 
bread to see my dear mother ; are you alone?" said 

1 Apron over her head. 



Korean Boys at School loi 

the tiger. " Yes, but why are you so hoarse, my 
daughter?" "I have taken cold in the moun- 
tain," said the tiger. " Well, pull the string and 
the latch will fly up; hasten in, dear child." So 
pulling up the string, he entered, pounced on the 
poor mother and devoured her also. But while 
still engaged in this bloody work, some wood- 
cutters who heard the poor woman's shrieks, 
rushed in and put an end to this greedy old 
beast. 

Many similar stories are told from parent to 
child, and some are written in the people's books. 

V^'ery few however of the poor can read. There 
are native private schools in nearly all the towns 
though, where Chinese is taught, and sometimes 
the Korean character. All are seated on the 
floor, together, and each boy shouts aloud, from 
his own book, the Korean words for the particu- 
lar set of Chinese characters he is learning. 

The boys begin wdth a few simple characters, 
and later take up combination characters, learn- 
ing certain maxims of Confucius, and so on, until 
they have memorized thousands. 

Rich men's sons often study from eight in the 
morning, till five or six at night, seven days in 
the week and all the year round, with the excep- 
tion of about two weeks at their New Year, and 
on a few other occasional holidays. They do not 
learn to speak Chinese, only to translate the writ- 
ten character, which is used as well in Japan, so 



102 Korean Nursery Life 

that a Korean student can make his wants known 
in either of these countries by writing, but cannot 
understand a word he hears. 

All this is splendid training for the memory, 
but the reasoning faculties have little if any ex- 
ercise. It is considered a liberal education for a 
man to be able to read and write Chinese, and to 
have read the maxims of Confucius. There are 
no professions which are considered part of a 
man's education. Doctoring is learned as a sort 
of a trade, and there are neither lawyers nor 
clergymen. In fact there are very few callings 
by which a gentleman who does not wish to learn 
a trade, and do manual labour can earn a living. 

The mission schools have opened up western 
ideas of education, and follow the curriculum of 
American schools, always, however, teaching a 
portion of the Bible each day, and giving a fair 
amount of Chinese, so that the pupils may not 
be at a disadvantage among their own country- 
men. The first schools started on this plan in 
Korea were the orphanage, before referred to, 
the *' Paji Hakting" and Ewa Haktung, boys' 
and girls' schools under the Methodist mission, 
a school for future medical students at the gov- 
ernment hospital, and a government school, the 
two latter under the patronage of the king. 

There have been ever since that time one or 
more schools for boys under government patron- 
age with American, English, French and Russian 



The Hope for the Girls 103 

teachers, and it was the intention of the queen to 
establish one for girls also, a purpose frustrated 
by her death. 

Besides the schools in the large mission sta- 
tions, under the direct superintendence of foreign- 
ers, nearly every large Christian village has its 
large Christian day school, supported partly or 
entirely by the natives, and in many cases these 
are so excellent and thorough, that heathen 
neighbours ask the privilege of sending their 
children. The Bible, catechism and western 
learning are taught to some extent in all these 
little country schools. 

The natives, too, are coming more and more 
to wish to educate their girls as well as the boys. 

Most boys, even the poor peasants' and farmers' 
sons, are engaged by the time they are twelve or 
fourteen years of age. Tompkins' brother — but 
that is a different story, and must wait. 

At that age, if they are well to do boys, that is 
if their father has sixty or seventy dollars a year, 
or even less, their hair is fastened up in a top 
knot, they put on fine new clothes, with a long 
touramachy, or coat, and friends are invited to a 
feast, and congratulate the boy on assuming the 
heavy responsibilities of life. 

He wears a straw hat, much the shape of the 
black ones, till he is actually married. The tying 
up of the hair is a very solemn ceremony, when 
soothsayers and astrologers are again called in, 



104 Korean Nursery Life 

to advise and oversee the performance. It is the 
great turning point in his life. Very poor boys 
also put up their hair, but much later, and with 
little or no ceremony, according to their means, 
or the possibility of borrowing. But do not for 
one moment suppose that getting married or en- 
gaged means at all what it does to us. O, no, 
not a bit, nothing at all like that in Korea. If 
you are a Korean of eleven or twelve, very likely 
your mother has just given your sister, aged fif- 
teen, in marriage to another family, and needs a 
handy little maid to help about the house with 
sewing, ironing, rice cooking, dish washing, fire 
lighting, weaving, spinning, etc. So she calls in 
a go-between or marriage broker, and consults her 
as to available saxies, as young girls are called. 
After much dickering and going back and forth, 
the arrangements are all settled between the two 
families, probably a specified number of bags of 
rice are paid for the girl, the ceremony is per- 
formed, and then for the first time the boy sees 
his bride. 



A CHAPTER OF PRESENTS 

There is a good deal to be said about Korean 
weddings, but that must come in by and by, and 
now we will return to the village boys. Most of 
them are quite small for their age, though some- 
times a tall strapping fellow is seen. Perhaps 
sleeping on hot floors and eating nothing but rice 
has something to do with that. 

These brown, healthy youngsters were de- 
lighted with Brown Eyes, and oh, the excitement 
and *'yahdon" when he and Dapple Grey went 
out together. All the boys wanted to lead the 
donkey, but those who could not, ran shouting 
before and behind, sometimes rather frightening 
the little boy who didn't like being so closely be- 
sieged by such a noisy crowd, although accord- 
ing to Korean ideas, the more retainers a man 
has, and the more noise they make, the greater 
the glory. This idea is purely Korean and un- 
known elsewhere. The boys all thought Brown 
Eyes a rare toy, and did their best to entertain 
him. They built houses in the sand, skipped 
stones along the water, made little images of 
clay, whittled toys of wood, and made wonderful 
slings of long pieces of stout bark, with which 

105 



io6 A Chapter of Presents 

they would throw three or four stones at once a 
very long distance. 

Brown Eyes was delighted with the sort of 
camping life in the funny little house. It had 
only two rooms separated by a kind of covered- 
in piazza, and a little shed lean-to kitchen. One 
room was occupied by the house boy, and the 
two chair coolies, who brought his mother there, 
and one was used by his father, mother and him- 
self, for sleeping, dining and sitting- room, yes, 
drawing-room and study, too. It was a kind of 
magic apartment, you see, and you had only to 
rub a ring, a lamp, or some such thing, wish, and 
presto, change, it accommodated itself to the needs 
of the hour, and what more perfect house does any- 
body want ? If the secret could only be learned, 
I'm sure we'd all have one. No common house 
will provide it ; on the contrary some rooms seem 
made to look at, and not to use at all You are 
afraid to sit here, or walk there, or touch that, till 
you feel you really want to creep out as quickly 
and quietly as possible. And some houses aren't 
even good to look at, much less to use. But with 
this little brownie house it was quite different, yes, 
indeed. The rooms were each only seven feet 
wide by eleven long, and about seven feet high 
in the middle where the roof tree was hung, but 
much lower at the sides ; so low that Tompkins' 
Amonni, who was a little woman, could easily 
reach up under the eaves, where a swallow's nest 



Brown Eyes' Cottage 107 

hung right over the maru, and fondle the baby 
birds when their mother had gone for worms. 
By the way, no Korean bad boy ever interferes 
with the swallows' nests and families. They are 
sacred, though the little sparrows are caught, 
dyed gay colours, tied to long strings, and teased 
and killed. But there I go wandering away 
again. This house had the kang floor, of which 
you have heard, warmed by a fire lit right under 
the house. A sure way to set it all burning you 
would say, but don't you see it was a fairy house, 
and nothing came to pass except a warm room 
and dinner. Did you clap your hands and wish 
for a bedroom, as you certainly would, after tear- 
ing about all day in the bracing fresh air, a slave 
of the ring would appear, in other words the 
house boy, with a great pile of clean straw 
which was laid on the warm floor in thick layers. 
On it were spread comforters and blankets, the 
outer shutter windows were closed, and the inner 
sliding ones were drawn, a tiny wick in a saucer 
of oil on a brass lamp stand (the one you rub, for 
a charm) was lit, and behold the bedroom ! Then 
in the morning, after they had dressed and wanted 
a dining-room, blankets, etc., were all removed 
to be aired and disposed of, windows were opened 
wide for an airing, the room was swept in a jiffy, 
while they went out for a few minutes to say 
good-morning to the glorious great tree, the 
placid river and the donkey. When they re- 



lo8 A Chapter of Presents 

turned they found their trunk had been trans- 
formed into a table, a delicious breakfast was 
served and there was a cozy dining-room. Break- 
fast had been cooked over a great black earthen 
bowl full of glowing charcoal, and often consisted 
of Korean beans, pheasants, rice, eggs and great 
luscious persimmons. Beautiful pheasants, such 
as are rarely if ever seen in America, were this 
little boy's daily food, bought for ten cents apiece 
from the Korean hunter, who with his old-fash- 
ioned match-lock gun, went out every day and 
came back with a bag full. Mother pheasants 
with their brood used to saunter all over the 
Wons' grounds, and roost in their trees, but no 
one dreamed of touching them. 

How happy the little family were in the little 
house ! It had only two rooms, but there was all 
outdoors, with the blue sky bending over them, 
dear earth beneath, and the river, birds, trees and 
mountains all for companions and friends. Es- 
pecially they delighted in realizing that it was 
all of it full of their God who made it, and that 
it is His life in every leaf, every whisper of the 
wind, every shining star or sunbeam making 
everything rich and sweet with holy import. 
How dead everything would be without Him ! 

The Captain had to be away in the city part 
of the time, but when he was with them he was 
always busy, translating mostly, sometimes build- 
ing an ice house for next summer, or starting a 



The Comfort of Rest 109 

g-arden, or trimming and transplanting trees. 
The other two were never far away, the Httle one 
playing in the sweet warm grass, the mother gaz- 
ing, dreaming, content, so blissfully so, that she 
could gladly have remained there forever, never 
knowing it was eternity, so fast the golden sands 
slipped by. 

There is great comfort for a weary woman, to 
be found in a house without a single picture, 
ornament, bit of delicate drapery or even a rug. 
Such restfulness there is in bare walls ! Such 
freedom from the irritation of small things, con- 
stantly though dumbly demanding attention, care, 
approval or the opposite, pressing as it were their 
annoying claims upon you. 

When there are so many pictures, ornaments, 
draperies, etc., of nature's incomparable handi- 
work out of doors, which demand no thought or 
care, why fill our houses with imitations ? 

In winter when one is shut in, and in a city at 
that, where all is bleak, bare and ugly out of 
doors, then little articles of virtu, souvenirs of 
travel or of friends far away, or precious heir- 
looms, cluster about one like friends, if there are 
not too many at once. So it happened that Mrs, 
Won never brought any of those things to their 
summer home, built later at the river. However, 
we left the family at breakfast a long while ago, 
and while they are lingering over it, I will tell 
you a little more about their Korean neighbours. 



1 10 



A Chapter of Presents 



Do not suppose that they live as the Wons did 
in the cottage. For instance, at night the village 
boys and poor people lie right dow^n on the coarse 
straw mats on the floor, with a wooden block for 
a pillow, and never trouble about anything else. 
In cold weather they cuddle up as close as possi- 
ble to each other on the warmest part of the floor, 
with a well padded quilt over them. Grand- 
father and grandmother have the warmest place, 
if they are a well-behaved family, and the chil- 
dren and servants on the outskirts, except the 
baby, who of course is cuddled close to grand- 
mother. In summer the men often lie out on the 
ground in front of the house, and the women on 
the maru or porch. If they are rich they may 
have two or even three sleeping rooms, and if 
they are very great people indeed, they have 
several little one-roomed huts for servants, at the 
gate, along the wall, and a fine sarang for the 
men of the family and their guests, as well as 
one for male servants. If they are very poor, 
they often dig a deep hole in the ground, thatch 
it with straw, and in the coldest weather, work 
and sleep there, close to the warm heart of old 
Mother Earth. Rich Koreans do have low beds 
(used chiefly in summer), and nice padded mat- 
tresses about two inches thick, covered with silk, 
or even with felt heavily embroidered with storks, 
dragons, trees and flowers. 

While I am telling you about the Koreans* 



How the Natives Eat 1 1 1 

houses and clothing", 1 suppose I might as well 
go on and tell about their food, too. It is served 
on little tables, by their mothers, sisters or wives, 
who usually stand and serve while the " men 
folks " eat. Each person has one of the little ta- 
bles, which are about a foot high and a foot in 
diameter, and on them are placed the bowl of 
rice, the kimchi or " saiicr kraut ^'' also a hot sauce 
something like Worcestershire, perhaps a little 
prepared seaweed, a few tiny slices of cold meat 
or chicken, or dried fish, or maybe some coarse 
vegetable. Everything except the rice is called 
the pancheon. If the family is rich, there may 
be kuksu or vermicelli soup, eggs, boiled chest- 
nuts or woody Korean pears. But very few even 
of the rich have such luxuries as those every day. 
When the men have finished or are well served, 
the women help themselves. "■ Dock " is another 
delicacy, variously made, which the foreigners 
have translated bread, but which if it does really 
belong to that old and honoured family, is a very 
distant cousin, and a poor relation at that. 

It is made in different ways ; one very common 
one is rice flower and oil, pounded together un- 
til it is as tough as India rubber. Sometimes the 
flower and oil are steamed, sometimes eaten raw, 
but in all cases it is disastrously indigestible. 

It is bewildering to a foreigner to behold na- 
tives eat kuksu. Lowering the head in as close 
proximity to the bowl as the use of chop-sticks 



112 A Chapter of Presents 

will admit, they begin lifting long masses of the 
vermicelli to their mouths. With agility gained 
only by long practice, they keep the uphill stream 
flowing, so that there is an unbroken stream of 
vermicelli from vessel to mouth till the last rem- 
nant has disappeared. It is a work of art in one 
sense. Kuksu as they prepare it for themselves 
is quite agreeable, but half warm, and much 
sweetened, as some of them think right to serve 
it to foreigners, it is, — well, — never mind. 

Game is very plentiful in Korea though I am 
afraid it will disappear before the onward march 
of civilization (?). A couple of foreigners went 
out recently and after two or three days, returned 
with over 500 pounds of various kinds of game 
birds, which you and I consider cruel slaughter, 
wicked and wasteful. Besides pheasants, there 
are snipe, pidgeons, wild geese and ducks in 
greatest abundance, and even wild turkeys. The 
latter, however, are rather scarce, and would you 
believe it, there are no tame turkeys at all, and 
no cranberries ! Just imagine Thanksgiving 
without turkeys and cranberries. 

Perhaps it's because the poor Koreans don't 
know anything about Thanksgiving in our sense 
of the word, and have no regular Thanksgiving 
day, though sometimes the king appoints a day 
for the people to thank their Honourable Heavens 
or Hannanim as they call their head god, for 
averting a famine or sending rain. 



Korean Idea of Eating 113 

Perhaps it is a good lesson to Americans, when 
they have to go without, to remind them that 
after all, Thanksgiving is not expressed mainly 
in feasting themselves, or even others, upon tur- 
key, cranberries, mince and pumpkin pies, etc., 
but that it means heartfelt gratitude and worship 
of God, who has blessed us. 

Brown Eyes' Amonni used to say, it seemed to 
her to savour a good deal of old heathen ideas 
and customs, and a good deal too much after the 
notions of our brute brothers, that most of our 
rejoicings must be celebrated with enormous 
meals, the greater the joy apparently, the greater 
the gormandizing. With the Koreans, in fact 
this idea of eating goes into every custom of life. 
A deaf man has " eaten his ears," a thief, or 
cheat, " eats money," a man who is ridiculed 
" eats yok," or insult, a hard creditor " eats wid- 
ows^ houses^^ clothes "eat starch," a repentant 
sinner '' eats a new mind," and I might continue 
an almost endless string of these examples, show- 
ing how large a place in their poor empty shal- 
low lives eating takes up. But for us, who feed 
on angels' food, who have bread to eat that they 
know not of, Mrs. Won used to say, the more 
quietly and unostentatiously we performed that 
necessary, but not elevating function, which Mr. 
Dickens called " coaling " the more our good taste 
would be in evidence. 

Notwithstanding and nevertheless, for the sake 



114 ^ Chapter of Presents 

of two dear old arbiters, Use and Wont, because 
it brought back dear old associations, and seemed 
to put them in touch with home land and home 
folks, the Wons tried every year to get a wild 
turkey and some canned cranberries for Thanks- 
giving day. 

Korean boys do not have as many or as long 
holidays as we. To begin with there are no Sat- 
urdays or Sundays (think of that 1), but worse is 
to come, there is no Thanksgivings Fourth of July 
or Christmas ; but what is more dreadful still, 
they know nothing of what these holidays stand 
for, the sweet, glorious, awful facts of the incarna- 
tion of an Almighty Redeemer and Saviour of 
the whole world in the form of a little child, is 
something they never even heard of; so how 
could they have a merry Christmas if they tried ? 

If some of the people who are working so hard 
for it, could only take our Jesus away, all the 
presents, dinners and Christmas-trees might be 
flung in the depths of the sea, we wouldn't care 
for them. It is the Christmas church bells that 
make all the rest of Christmas doings glad, it is 
the Christ-child on top of the Christmas-tree that 
makes the candles blaze so, and the trimmings 
glitter. Do you know a lady once dressed a 
Christmas-tree for the Korean royal family, but 
it wasn't at all a success ? It was all covered 
with candles, glass balls and stars, but, it seemed 
a foolish thing, there in the palace, it was plain 




BUDDHIST PAGODA. 




BUDDHIST MONKS. 



Korean Holidays 1 1 J 

they couldn't understand its use, or enter into the 
spirit of it. As for the Fourth of July, they do 
not know the meaning of national freedom and 
independence, but as they wouldn't know how to 
use it without Christ, that is a small thing com- 
pared with the ignorance of Him, and in fact all 
Christians know that nothing is worth having 
without Him, as our dear Whittier has said, 

" Apart from Him all gain is loss, all labour vainly done, 
The solemn shadow of His cross is better than the sun." 

] But in the place of our holidays they have 
some others. There is New Year's, the longest 
and chief of all. The birthday of Buddha, about 
whom very few of them know anything definite, 
the birthdays of the members of the royal family, 
their own and their parents', the anniversary of 
Kija's death, and the spring and fall decoration 
days. 

The New Year festival comes at the time 
which they believe to be the opening of the 
spring, and it is to celebrate this reawakening 
life of all nature that the great holidays of China, 
Korea, and Japan are held. As they are regu- 
lated by the moon, this festival comes a little 
later in some years, and a little earlier in others, 
usually about the middle of February. At that 
time nearly everybody has new clothes, all dyed 
the brightest colours, and new hair and ankle 
ribbons ; the women are busy for weeks before, 



Ii6 A Chapter of Presents 

preparing new clothes for all the family, or if not 
new, at least newly-dyed and ironed. Feasts are 
in order, not only at home, but as one goes round 
calling on relatives and friends, one is ''taichap 
haoed " (or fed on dainties). 

Quantities of dock and other festival foods are 
in readiness. One of these is a little, a very 
little, after the fashion of our plum pudding. It 
is filled with spices, fruit and nuts, but with so 
much oil that to us, who are accustomed to suet 
or butter (which of course is not grease), it is 
quite offensive. 

At that time presents are in order, of all sorts 
of things, new rice bowls, shoes, kites, braces of 
pheasants, strings of eggs, sticks of dried per- 
simmons, bags of nuts, boxes of Japanese oranges. 
The king sends the high officials great quantities 
of food and often used to favour the missionaries 
in the same way. 

The people keep holiday at that time any- 
where from two days to two weeks, according to 
their station or wealth. 

There are many interesting customs in con- 
nection with these New Year's holidays, but I 
shall leave some more learned writer to describe 
them in detail, and will only mention one or 
two. 

From the last day of the old year to the third 
or fourth of the new, Koreans call on their 
relatives and superiors, and the heads of their 



New Year's Customs 1 1 7 

families. In the country the calling is sometimes 
kept up — even to the tenth day. At each house, 
of course, they are offered dainties, and some- 
times, even a boy, will eat during an afternoon, 
twenty-five large pieces of dock. Before break- 
fast, on the first day of the year, sacrifices are 
offered to dead parents and ancestors, and their 
graves are visited on the first day, if possible, or 
at least before the fifth. 

On the fifteenth day, many burn their hair 
combings, as a sacrifice to the god of colds and 
influenza, and he is so pleased v/ith the offering, 
or displeased with the odour, that he keeps away, 
it is said, for the rest of the year. I'm sure I 
don't wonder, do you ? 

Straw babies with a few cash in their bodies, 
are thrown out on the street by those who have 
received the ill-will of the stars — in the hope that 
others less superstitious will pick up their troubles 
with the dolls for the sake of the cash and carry 
them off. Here is a faint glimmering of the idea 
of vicarious sacrifice. 

Others make small moons of pieces of paper, 
which they put on the house-top, and at the time 
of the full moon bow and prostrate themselves 
before it. 

On the evening of the fifteenth, poor boys go 
from door to door begging money, and well-to-do 
households have small, gaily coloured baskets in 
which a few coins are placed, and these are 



1 1 8 A Chapter of Presents 

handed out, and with them the very generous 
donors suppose they are giving away their dis- 
eases and misfortunes to the recipients. 

On the fifteenth of the New Year, in the city 
of Seoul, it is the custom to walk over all the 
many bridges which cross the great open sewers, 
in order to prevent corns or any foot disease 
during the year. 

On the shortest day in the year — in many 
houses, bean gruel is eaten, and blood is sprinkled 
on the lintel and the sides of the house door, or 
in the absence of blood, red water from the boil- 
ing beans is used to keep away the spirits who 
bring death, these spirits being dull fellows, who 
are easily cheated into taking coloured bean 
water for blood. 

The festival of Buddha's birthday is the same 
as that which is kept in Japan and China, of 
which my readers need no information. 

The anniversary of Kija's death is also kept. 
Kija was a noted historical character, the founder 
of Korea as a nation, and it was during his 
reign that Korea's alphabet was created. On 
this day Koreans have their cold rice feast, 
which is eaten and prepared, startlingly like the 
Jews' feast of unleavened bread. 

The fifth of the fifth moon is the summer 
festival, known in China as the dragon boat 
feast, and as it is not largely regarded in the 
country, but is celebrated mainly in the capital 



Summer Festival 119 

where people have come in contact frequently 
with Chinese, I am inclined to regard it as 
merely borrowed. 

It is mainly a woman's holiday and many of 
them, of course, lower and middle class women, 
of safe matronly years, take their rice and other 
food, and go to the country to the woods, 
picnicking in delightful discomfort, so much like 
Americans, it does one's heart good to see 
them. 

At these functions like the Presbyterian meet- 
ings, '' Of women there seemed an innumerable 
throng, but the men I could count as I passed 
along." Swings are erected in various places, 
and boys and girls do their swinging for the year 
on that and the following day, making a charm- 
ing picture, in the groves on the hillsides, with 
their gaily coloured garments as though great 
masses of exotic flowers had suddenly burst into 
gorgeous bloom there. 

The birthdays of the royal family are of course 
always public holidays, and at such times, it is 
the custom of their majesties to send fans, 
honey water or presents of game, eggs, etc., 
according to season, to high officials and 
foreign friends. 

In every family, birthdays are regarded much 
as with us, some more, some less, and feasts, 
invited guests and presents are often in order. 

When an aged couple reach the sixtieth anni- 



120 A Chapter of Presents 

versary of their marriage, a great feast is given, 
all the descendants are invited, their eldest sons 
and daughters are then dressed in infants' attire, 
and everything possible is done in a jocular way 
to recall the early married days. It is a great 
occasion, not a whit less important than our 
golden weddings. 

Koreans have two cemetery decoration days. 
One about the seventh of April, or one hundred 
and fifteen days after the shortest day of the 
year, the other in the fall on the fifteenth day of 
the eighth Korean moon ; this is the mid-autumn 
festival. 

On these occasions it is the custom for whole 
families to repair to the cemeteries, where they 
look to the good order of the grounds, offer 
sacrifices, decorate the graves at times with 
flowers, and weep over the dead. 

They, however, manage to combine pleasure 
with business and mourning, take a nice lunch- 
eon, and make an outing out of it. 

These are the only occasions I know of, when 
Korean men and the women of their families go 
anywhere in company for pleasure ; and even 
here, the young saxies between twelve and 
twenty, and even the older ladies of high 
families do not participate, or even leave their 
apartments except in tightly closed chairs. 

In this connection I would say that the 
Koreans have no proper cemeteries, but graves 



Korean Cemeteries 121 

are scattered everywhere on the hillsides, to 
their great disfigurement. 

Not a fine site, not a wooded hillside where 
pure air and good view are to be had but there 
are to be found graves, and it is a serious 
matter indeed to move one of them under the 
jealous protection of the spirits of the dead, 
whose main business seems to be waiting a 
chance to pour the vials of awful spiritual wTath 
on their unlucky descendants, for the slightest 
breach of the reverence and duty owed to them- 
selves. When the Captain bought the place at 
the river — but that will come in later — first we 
must finish paying our respects to the dead. 

Korean funerals are held at night, a not un- 
fitting custom it seems to me, in the solemn 
hush, when the world with its cold curious gaze, 
and its loud business and pleasure has all re- 
tired. Night with her soothing quiet and 
sheltering shadow^s veils the mourner's grief, 
seems to sympathize, in fact, and undisturbed 
and uncriticised, the broken-hearted can go forth 
alone with his dead. With the Koreans there 
may be another reason. They believe that 
sorrow and death are sent as a punishment for 
some crime of the bereaved, therefore he puts on 
the garb of shame, wears an immense wide- 
brimmed, low-dipping hat, which with a small 
hand screen, entirely hides his features, puts on 
garments of sackcloth with a rope for a girdle, 



122 A Chapter of Presents 

and is not seen at gatherings of friends or at the 
palace. When a bereaved son, at a distance 
from home, hears of his father's death, he takes 
down his hair, in token of grief and shame, and, 
dressed in sackcloth, returns in a very poorly 
made chair covered with white, the mourning 
colour, to his home. At the funeral, the dead 
is placed in a box covered with rich drapery if 
they are wealthy, and preceded by official 
lanterns and banners which relate his virtues. 
If poor, the body is simply wrapped in straw 
and carried on a bier. It is only the lowest and 
most needy class of coolies who are willing to 
act as carriers for the dead, so the missionaries 
felt all the more the love of the native Chris- 
tians, who though scholars and men of the 
upper middle classes, on several occasions in- 
sisted on themselves bearing the remains of 
dead missionaries to their graves, several miles 
distant from Seoul. There are only two of the 
city gates through which native funerals pass, 
for I forgot to say that no burials are permitted 
within the walls, nor are any dead bodies per- 
mitted to be brought in, whether of foreigners 
or natives. Arrived at the grave site, sacrifices 
and prayers are offered, often food and various 
utensils are placed in the grave, and the remains 
are covered with a round, high mound, which 
stands in front of a semicircular embankment, 
somewhat higher than the graves at the back, 



A Difficult Purchase 123 

sloping to the level of the ground in front. If it 
can be afforded, stone images of sheep and 
stone lantern stands are placed on either side, 
and the whole flanked by a stately grove of 
pine-trees, which in a minor key, eternally 
murmur the melancholy dirge of the loved and 
lost. 

And now for the grave story ; it is not ghastly, 
so you need not shudder. 

When the Captain found that it was so un- 
healthy in the city during the hot wet summers, 
he began looking about for a place not too far 
away from his sheep, where he could take his 
family during the trying season, and after much 
hunting discovered a bluff on the river, not five 
miles from Seoul, covered with a fine grove of 
trees, and open to healthful winds on all sides 
with no dangerous rice-fields near. But alas, it 
had two very important looking graves on it ! 
However the Captain was never very easily dis- 
couraged, and he at once, in a careful way, set 
about making inquiries. It soon transpired that 
the graves in question had belonged to a Korean 
yangban, or gentleman of good family, who did 
no credit to his forebears, but spent his time in 
gambling and drinking. Now we have heard of 
people drinking many strange things ; Cleopatra 
drank pearls, and the French revolutionists drank 
blood, but I doubt whether it was ever heard be- 
fore of a man drinking his ancestors' graves. 



124 A Chapter of Presents 

This feat was successfully accomplished by this 
profligate. 

The natives consider a man has fallen low in- 
deed, and is degenerate beyond expression who 
will do such a thing ; he might starve his parents 
and neglect them, but to sell their graves is a 
crime of infinitely greater degree. 

The Korean, to whom he sold them in order to 
get more money for his evil practices, was a poor 
farmer, who dared not cut the trees, or farm much 
of the land on account of the spirits, so he in turn 
very gladly sold it to the Captain's agent. 

But the worthy original owner found out that 
his dear and honoured graves had passed into 
the hands of a ^* vile and sacrilegious foreigner," 
whose conduct he could not guess nor control ; 
there was a yahdon, and the mischief to pay. 
Of course he couldn't touch the Captain, directly, 
sheltered under the mighty folds of '' Old Glory," 
but he knew quite well how he could touch him 
sharply, indirectly, and at once through his 
'' quansaV or influence, and so threw the aged 
father of the man who had sold the land into jail, 
and threatened a beating which would soon have 
ended his life. 

The Captain's first intimation of this was the 
appearance of a melancholy deputation of the 
chief men of the village, where the farmer lived, 
bringing the terrible news and imploring the 
Captain to give back the deeds. In addition, 



The Way Out 125 

they said they dared not return home, as if they 
failed to bring the papers, they would all be cast 
into jail. 

In reply, the Captain invited them all to pay 
him a visit for a season in his sarang or guest 
house, and taking his hat, he hurried to the 
American Legation. 

Fortunately for him, there was there an official 
who was willing and ready to stand for the rights 
of Americans to the last, and although realizing 
that a struggle about graves was apt to be a 
tough and long one, and though assured by Brit- 
ish officials of long experience in China, that the 
man would be beaten in the end, he gallantly en- 
tered the lists, and the first act was of course to 
insist to Korean officials, on the immediate re- 
lease of the old man. Poor old man, he was ar- 
rested again and again, and as often released. 
Deputations from the village spent days and 
weeks at the aforesaid sarang. 

The title was disputed, and proved to be sounder 
than a dollar (I don't mean a silver one), but a 
really, truly, honest, good, American, gold dollar. 

Then it was represented that the property was 
too near the grave site of the highest Korean of- 
ficial, and that the residence of foreigners so near 
would contaminate the sacred ground. When it 
was found against whom he was pitted, the Cap- 
tain was advised and implored to give up. He 
was told on all sides that he was in a losing bat- 



126 A Chapter of Presents 

tie, and the only thing to do was to yield with 
good grace while he could. 

Even the American minister told him that no 
doubt restrictions of one sort or another would 
probably be contrived to make his residence there 
impossible, even if he succeeded in keeping the 
deeds. But Mrs. Won had not nicknamed her 
husband " Captain " for nothing. He had re- 
ceived from his British forebears a certain bulldog 
tenacity in his undertakings, and from his Amer- 
ican training, he had lost neither that nor a gal- 
lant determination to defend his rights to the 
death, no more to be moved than a rock. 

So he only replied that if his excellency would 
stand by him, he would hold the property till the 
day of his death, if he never put one piece of 
timber on top of another. 

The High and Mighty Korean then offered to 
exchange with the Captain for some other site 
equally good, but at a safer distance from his 
graves. This was acceded to, but it was soon 
evident that the offer was not made in good faith, 
for no sites that were practicable were offered. 

The Captain now commenced building his 
house, and this he placed, so as not to overlook 
the valued graves of the profligate who had 
prized them so highly as to sell them for drink, 
and made every effort to regard all the wishes 
and restrictions of this man, who hung about the 
place, objecting in haughty terms to nearly every- 



The Wons Win the Case 127 

thing that was done. He was to be permitted, it 
will be remembered, to keep them there, and they 
were treated with the same respect which the 
Wons, who were decent folk in the main, would 
have shown to the graves of any one. Children 
were not allowed to play upon them, nor any in- 
dignities of any kind allowed. 

But the now very solicitous kinsman would 
not be satisfied, and finally sent w^ord through 
some high official that he would never allow the 
man who had sold the property to foreigners to 
live in peace in his home, but would drive him 
and his family out of the neighbourhood. 

This was the last straw, so the Captain went 
to a Korean judge and presented the case. This 
man found that the graves had been dug on a 
Keumsan, or sacred land prohibited as a grave 
site, and that, being unlawful there, they must be 
removed. 

There was no resource possible to the enemy 
after that. The Captain paid for a new site and 
the proper removal of the bodies, and thenceforth 
had no more trouble, but this fight had continued 
nearly two years ; and while the three or four 
acres had cost only seventy-five dollars in money, 
tissue, nervous and muscular had been expended 
to many times that value. 

Brown Eyes and Dapple Grey, with father and 
mother, stayed at the river until they were all 
quite better, and all the bad effects of the sum- 



128 A Chapter of Presents 

mer had passed off, then they went back to the 
city again. And here the paths of Brown Eyes 
and his donkey had to part forever. For some 
very kind Korean friends in the country, not 
knowing he had a Dapple Grey at all, sent him 
another. 

Now the new one and the old, for some reason, 
did not get on at all well ; probably the old 
friend was jealous, and besides the Captain 
couldn't well afford to keep two such animals, 
and felt it would be a discourtesy to send away 
the one which had been presented by the Kore- 
ans, and disliked to hurt their feelings. There- 
fore it was decreed that Dapple Grey should be 
lent to a missionary who had five or six little 
ones to enjoy him. So he was led away and 
soon found himself in a happy family. The chil- 
dren petted him as if he had been a dog, and 
though they all tried to ride him at once, he never 
minded in the least. They pulled his ears and 
tail, and tumbled about under his feet; but he 
was more gentle than a kitten and seemed to 
realize that he must be careful of them. 

In return they treated him to the best they had, 
and made him welcome wherever they went, so 
much so, that one day when their mamma, hear- 
ing more noise than usual, went to see what was 
the matter, she found the donkey in the bedroom, 
quite as much at home apparently as in the 
courtyard. At last, however, to the great grief 



Brown Eyes' Conscience 129 

of everybody, no doubt his own most of all, he 
was stolen away, and there was an end of his 
good times. 

As the war between Japan and China had 
been going on all this while, as I have said, 
Brown Eyes and all the little foreign boys in 
Korea were very fond of playing soldier, and full of 
warlike ideas. They knew nothing of the horrors 
of war, only thinking it a fine thing to stalk about 
with toy guns and swords and talk about killing 
and shooting. 

Brown Eyes said he was going on his donkey 
to ''Pling An" to help the Yapanese hight the 
Chinese, but he prayed God every night to 
''please take care of the king and queen and not 
let them be killed." 

The war play was very absorbing, and it was 
very hard to stop entirely one day in seven ; but 
Brown Eyes had very carefully been taught to 
keep the Sabbath, though often he found it a 
trial. 

One Sunday, his mother, who was sitting in 
the dining-room reading, heard him as he paced 
up and down the hall, just outside the closed 
doors, talking to himself. 

"Harry," the little voice began, in tones of 
solemn rebuke, " Harry, you know you ought 
not to play with your gun on Sunday." 

In stout self-defense, the other boy who lived 
behind the clear brown eyes, replied, "But I'm 



130 A Chapter of Presents 

not playing with it at all, I'm only holding it 
while I walk up and down." 

*' Harry " (severely and sadly), *' you know 
you are playing, and you know you ought not 
to do it." 

The voices of denial and self-defense upon this 
were hushed, and the small prisoner at the bar 
of conscience stood proven guilty and condemned 
to put away the gun. 

However, next best to playing with that 
dangerous weapon, was the joy of listening to 
the story of his beloved hero David, or of the 
magnificent faith and moral courage of Daniel or 
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. 

But David was the prime favourite, so brave, 
so beautiful, so young, so generous and victor- 
ious, for who does not love youth, beauty, courage 
and success. 

So he laid aside his arms almost cheerfully, to 
listen to Bible stories, and to pore over Bible 
pictures. He never tired of the stories, and did 
not forget them, and sometimes brought to the 
surface queer little thoughts, which showed how 
this reading had impressed his infant mind. 

Once as he trotted around after his Amonni 
while she did her housewifely duties, she asked 
with a loving smile that told him she was only 
teasing, why he followed her like that all day ? 
** 'Cause I want to be where you are, mamma ; " 
and after a few minutes' quiet, " Mamma, wasn't 



A Boyish Faith 131 

that a pretty poetry that Ruth said to her 
mamma, ' Where thou goest I ivilst go^ and 
wherever tJiy diest I wilst die ' f " 

During the winter the little fellow suffered 
much with severe neuralgic pains, especially at 
night. After rubbing a long time with witch 
hazel and ointment, he fell asleep, and seemed 
much better next morning. 

Forgetting how near heaven a child lives, 
and how real to him are the eternal verities, 
his mother thoughtlessly remarked, " I guess 
it was those nice hot flannels made you bet- 
ter." 

*' No, mamma, it wasn't the flannels." She 
saw a serious little face and knew, but longing to 
hear all, continued, '* Then it was Hammamelis ? " 
" No, mamma, it wasn't the Hammamelis ; you 
put that on a great many times and it didn't 
help me, it was Jesus made me better," and one 
day seeing her weep over her poor little patient 
sufferer, he said, " What makes you cry, mamma, 
why don't you go and tell Jesus and ask Him to 
make me better ? " 

His devotion and loyalty were unfailing. One 
day, having been refused sugar on his bread, he 
remarked poutingly, " I'm mad." ''What! mad 
at mamma ! " said she. 

Throwing his little arm round her neck and 
patting her cheek the litde fellow whispered, 
"I'm mad just round the other way, because I 



132 A Chapter of Presents 

haven't got enough mammas Uke you. I wish 
you were twenty mammas, and had twenty heads, 
so you could be kissing me all the time with 
every one of them." 

Here is another extract rom the diary of this 
sentimental mother : 

" On Friday he had the long desired oppor- 
tunity to go on the river in a boat for a sail with 
some friends. 

'' He was delighted and started off in great 
glee, but came all the way back, after a few 
moments, to me who, afflicted with a severe 
headache, could not go. 

'' Rushing to me and putting his little arms 
round my neck he murmured, * I want to tell you 
somesing, mamma ; iss I go away would you be 
lonely ? ' 

** * Well a little, but I want you to go and 
have a good time.' *Well, mamma, iss you 
would be just a small bit lonely, I won't go.' 
I had to urge the litde fellow off though it 
was his chief glory to ride in a boat on the 
water. 

** Again Last Sunday I was going to a 

native meeting and was trying with lame hands 
to gather up several large books. Brown Eyes 
saw, and running to the rescue, said, * No, 
mamma, you mustn't lift those books. I'll take 
them,' and with great effort, the little fellow 
clambered down the steps with them, almost 



The Boy Helps 133 

more than he could manage, and brought them 
to my sedan chair for mc." 

So ran the course of the true love of Brown 
Eyes and his Amonni. 




VI 

BROWN EYES 

One day a very high Korean lady asked his 
mamma to bring him to her palace, for the 
Korean ladies are very fond of children, and en- 
joy the little Americans very much. 

So he was dressed in his best and carried with 
his mother, by four stout coolies in a sedan 
chair to pay this visit. 

Though only a little more than four years old 
at this time, the child had ridden in a great 
many kinds of strange vehicles in various 
countries. 

He had been carried in Chinese sedan chairs 
on the tops of men's shoulders, and whisked 
along at a marvelous rate in jinrickishas, those 
funny baby carriages which everybody uses in 
Japan, and before that, in the no less odd little 
garrys in Singapore. 

He had rattled along London streets in cabs 
and omnibuses, and in a two penny tube far 
under the same city, shot through American 
thoroughfares in electric street cars, bowled 
along quiet country roads in his grandpapa's 
easy basket carriage, and sped over thousands 
of miles of iron roads in palace cars and in those 

134 



Some ot Brown Eyes' Rides 135 

little boxes called carriages on English roads, 
and on the Continent, and years later, he rode 
in two story street cars in Paris. 

He even, I am ashamed to say, rode once in a 
wicked automobile at a murderous speed. He 
bestrode a donkey in Joppa, and was carried in 
a tall Arab's arms in Jerusalem, and once in 
Korea he rode in a jickay, once in China in a 
schenza or mule litter, and once in Vladivostok 
ratded along break-neck in a Russian droschky, 
and sped on a bicycle when he grew older of course. 

But very few little foreign boys have ever 
ridden in the sort of chair in which Brown Eyes 
rode to the palace, for that was a queen's chair 
covered with velvet, and lined with silk and had 
been used by her Majesty who had sent it as a 
present to his mamma. 

He peeped out of the little glass windows, and 
chattered all the way, as they wound along the 
narrow muddy streets, filled with long lines of 
great oxen carrying loads of fuel to the city, or 
little tinkling pack ponies ridden by noisy un- 
kempt Korean boys, with here and there a candy 
merchant, or a fruit peddlar, a yangban riding 
in his chair or his donkey, preceded and followed 
by trains of hangers on making a great shouting 
to people to get out of the way of this great 
man. There were plenty of loungers staring 
about with nothing to do, and doing it to per- 
fection. 



136 



Brown Eyes 



There were little shops in plenty driving a 
brisk business. I think the brass shops pleased 
Brown Eyes most of all, and I am sure they 
would delight the hearts of American ladies, 
who nowadays seem to take great pleasure in 
everything that is brass or copper. The Korean 
brass is really a sort of bell metal with a fine 
ring, the art of making which is confined to the 
natives. These shops are full of all sorts of 
shining bowls and cups, with covers, which 
serve as saucers, too, spoons, chop-sticks, 
candlesticks, lamp stands, — such unique tall 
graceful things — and little bells, each with a 
quaint looking fish hanging from it with a 
chain, so that when hung from the roof of your 
house, the wind will set the fish moving, and 
the bell gently tinkling. There is a famous 
great bell in the centre of the city which is not 
rung with a clapper, but by striking it with a 
heavy club, when it gives out an extremely 
sweet low sound, which at the same time must 
be penetrating, for it is heard all over the city. 

When the gates are to be shut at night or 
opened in the morning this bell rings. 

There is a sad legend that when it was cast it 
would not give the right ring until a little child 
was flung into the liquid metal. 

Its last plaintive cry Amonni, Amonni, is, they 
say, exactly reproduced, whenever the bell is 
struck. 



Visiting a King 137 

Soon Brown Eyes and his mamma were 
carried under great stone arched gates, and past 
guards who presented arms, and saluted greatly 
to the delight of the little one, and then on and 
on through many more gates and bridges, and 
winding roads past more soldiers who all saluted 
as they continued passing round and round, 
through one wall after another. 

There was a fine lotus pond, where the ice 
was like glass in winter, but where the lovely 
pink flowers bloom in summer, and in the centre 
of the pond such a lovely little summer-house, 
and everywhere, on all sides, ever and ever so 
many houses, large and small. One feels quite 
in a maze, winding in and out among them all. 

At last the chair is put down and a Korean 
gentleman lifts Brown Eyes out and hands him 
over to a lady, who has orders to bring him in 
without delay. 

This palace consisted of several large, one 
story buildings, each with several small rooms, 
the floors of which were covered with the best 
and thickest oiled paper, which shone like 
highly polished wood. The rafters and beams 
supporting them were of splendid great logs of 
highly polished timben The lamps, fire pots 
and other brass utensils all glittered with much 
rubbing. On the floors were mats, much em- 
broidered cushions, and standing against the 
wall were quaint and elegant cabinets, some 



138 Brown Eyes 

inlaid with pearl, some heavily ornamented 
with brass hinges, locks, etc. Here and there 
might be seen a bit of foreign furniture, such as 
a clock or a chair, but there were no pictures, 
no drapery, no bric-a-brac. A few large tubs 
with blossoming plants stood in one of the outer 
rooms, and these are quite common in the homes 
of all the Korean nobility. 

The details of this visit have been told before. 
Harry was petted and feasted far more than was 
good for him, and proved to be here, as often 
before, a very convenient little key to many 
hearts, for the like of which mission boards 
should be duly thankful. On their return, as 
they jogged through all the labyrinthine wind- 
ing ways, while grateful for the kindness shown 
them, they were very glad indeed, for their part, 
that they were just plain Americans, and could 
live quietly, simply and cozily in their own 
modest home, their own lives free to come and 
go, without always being in the glare of the 
world's great stage, the target for thousands of 
eyes and tongues, too. The mountain peaks 
are lonely as well as cold and much exposed ; 
there is much slippery walking, bad going, 
and terrible great yawning depths of horror be- 
low. Not many would care to build their homes 
on the peaks of this world's greatness, if they 
realized it. 

When Brown Eyes reached home he found 



/ 



Two Magicians 139 

many trays and bowls of goodies had arrived 
there before him. He knew quite well he could 
not eat them, but he enjoyed giving them to his 
little native friends, as much or more than hav- 
ing them himself. 

But though he could not eat many dainties, 
you may be sure there were folks who did their 
best to make it up to the little fellow, and to see 
that he had a happy holiday season. First and 
foremost, there were the grandparents and 
aunts and uncles in far o£E America, who were 
not so far off after all, for this is no mistake a 
fairy world, all full of enchantments, no matter 
what the infidels and the gradgrinds and all the 
rest of them say. There is a magician called 
Love, who with one stroke of his wand wipes out 
time and space, and behold ! The globe which 
used to be so big, becomes quite small. 

Then there is another almost as great called 
Faith, who has ordained that '' To him that be- 
lieve th all things are possible," and when those 
two join hands, America is only just round the 
corner from Korea, and it's no trick at all to send 
big Christmas boxes over ten thousand miles of 
prairies and ocean. The cars, the steamers, the 
shipping agents, great burly railroad porters, the 
sampans, the lighters, and last of all the great 
Korean ox-carts and their drivers were all the 
sla^'es of love and faith. They work with a will 
for these masters, even when thev themselves 



140 Brown Eyes 

don't know it ; in fact, you know, through these 
two the great Ruler keeps the world itself spin- 
ning right. 

So the big packing boxes were nearly always 
on hand before Christmas eve for Brown Eyes. 

Not but there were hitches sometimes, for 
there are evil powers, too, that occasionally 
made the boxes late, or sent them astray, but 
Love made it all up, for then he had two good 
times, one the really, truly, dear Christmas, and 
one with the presents that came all perfumed 
with Christmas messages, good wishes, and the 
very atmosphere of American Christmas even in 
the wrappers and the labels. 

Why it was allowed that one child's Christmas 
box came quite empty, after having been robbed 
by sacrilegious hands, and one came with pack- 
ages for everybody in the community except the 
one to whom it was addressed, I'm sure I don't 
know. There are a few things none of us know 
or understand, no matter how wise we may pre- 
tend to be. There is no use trying to explain, 
we just don't know, and the best thing for us to 
do is to say so frankly. 

It is a comfort, though, whether the mystery 
be a ravaged Christmas box or a world appar- 
ently out of tune, to believe that there is One 
above who knows it all, and makes it all work for 
good, the best and highest good, of those who 
love Him. Still, for the present, it is not joyous 



The Christmas Stockings 141 

but very grievous to have a Christmas box go 
astray, or pass along a Jericho road to Korea, 
and I don't wish to talk about it at present, but 
return to Brown Eyes' happy Christmas. 

Well, then, the evening before, the box with 
the nails all drawn but not a cover lifted by any- 
body, no not for the world, was carried into 
papa's study and placed on a big sheet near the 
fireplace. Not a soul in the house would have 
peeped for any consideration, and oh, what de- 
licious mystery enshrined that rough looking old 
box, what might it 7tot contain ! 

I have often thought that Santa Claus was 
a very honest and considerate old fellow, but 
being the true gentleman he is, he would of 
course never think of prying, and besides being 
so busy, he wouldn't have time. And how hur- 
ried and busy he is now he has begun making 
a trip around the world every holiday sea- 
son ! Brown Eyes' stocking was rather small 
the first few Christmases, so mamma's was usu- 
ally hung there. The study chimney was gener- 
ally chosen, probably because it wasn't far from 
the bedroom, and partly because it was such a 
fine big one, and easier for Santa to come down 
with a large pack, and for some reason he always 
brought a very large pack to Brown Eyes. Per- 
haps he had found out how patiently he always 
did without cakes and sweetmeats, and wanted 
to show his appreciation, too, of such a good 



142 Brown Eyes 

child. Well, the first thing in the morning, quite 
a good deal earlier than was well for them, the 
family woke up. It was the dearest object on 
earth to each of these three, to say '' Merry 
Christmas " first to the other two. Brown Eyes 
was usually the winner in this contest. 

Then the Captain got into his woollen kimono 
in short order and fairly ran (don't tell, for he 
wouldn't like it to be known that he was so un- 
dignified) into the study and lit the fire, which 
had been laid hours before with a grand old back 
log, which was soon blazing, roaring and crack- 
ling, ** Merry Christmas" over and over, to be 
sure to be the first with Brown Eyes. 

In the meantime Brown Eyes and Amonni had 
been getting on their kimonos and slippers, too, 
and it didn't take long, either, and were right on 
the spot. And first of all the stocking ! There 
it hung, all delightful humps and tuberosities. 
You could see from the outside, here a square 
package — there a long one — above that some- 
thing round, while out at the top stuck whips, 
guns, swords, trumpets or canes. 

Everything had to be shown to father and 
mother and talked over and admired by them. 

And then the box ! Who can begin to de- 
scribe the joys of the box, new clothes, new 
toys, new books, all round. Loving messages 
sweetening them all. '' For Harry with Aunty 
H's love and Merry Christmas," *'for Harry with 



Opening the Box 143 

Uncle J's love and Merry Christmas," and so on 
all round the family, till the people were nearly 
waist deep in wrapping papers, presents piled 
on all the chairs and tables in distracting con- 
fusion, breakfast on and nobody ready for it, or 
any appetite, and notes and packages begin- 
ning to arrive from the other foreigners to be 
answered — oh, dear — how was anybody ever to 
get dressed. And then as soon as they could 
scramble into their garments there were baskets 
and boxes and bags to be sent all round the 
community. Everything had been wrapped and 
tied the day before, and each package had a 
spray of mistletoe or holly. 

Even before the packages were sent off a lot 
of poor people, the servants and all the members 
of their families were called in and had their 
Christmas gifts. As Harry was an only child, 
his parents were very much afraid he would 
grow selfish, so they tried to plan things so he 
should have his pleasures in common with others, 
and it was not the least happy part of his day, 
helping to make these others happy. 

They always had their Christmas Church serv- 
ice with the Korean Christians, Christmas eve. 

The little church was gay with lanterns and 
dressed up with mistletoe and evergreen, and 
gayest of all with the bright garments of the 
little children and young saxies, for at least on 
that occasion, nearly all the saxies, so jealously 



144 Brown Eyes 

guarded during the rest of the year, are allowed 
to come to church. How brilliant the assembly 
looked, all reds, yellows, greens, the freshest 
and brightest. The Christmas carols were sung, 
Christmas services read, the dear old sweet story 
of the Babe and the Angels and the Star, the 
Christmas prayer of joy and praise offered, then 
everybody beamed on everybody else, and every- 
body else wished everybody a '' blessed Christ- 
mas," which we have Carlyle's authority for 
saying is better than a happy or merry one, and 
the Koreans went ofif in little parties to enjoy 
their dear dock and other indigestibles together, 
and the Wons, to help Santa, and settle their 
brains for a long winter nap. Christmas night, 
the Wons always had as many of the old pioneer 
missionaries as they could arrange for, to dinner 
at their house. 

These old cronies who had gone through a 
good many experiences together, were just as 
much at home with each other as brothers and 
sisters, and usually had a jolly time, laughing at 
each others' old jokes, interested in each others' 
old stories, and arguing over each others' old 
points of difference. Our Mrs. Won asked them 
to come prepared to tell the most interesting 
and exciting incident which ever happened in 
his or her life. 

So when dinner was over, they all gathered 
around the fire, and such a string of tales! 



I 



A Christmas Party 145 

People who have crossed continents and oceans 
several times, and lived in lands like Korea have 
some queer experiences. I wish I could tell you 
all those stories now, but perhaps some time I 
may if you are good and listen to this 
well. 

A day or two after Christmas there was always 
a Christmas-tree and party for all the foreign 
children. That was an institution as old as the 
house, and besides what litde boy would want a 
tree all to his lone self. Who ever heard of a 
one child tree, or a selfish tree, that was any 
good, and so all the little foreigners were in- 
vited. Once there were forty. Mercy, you 
couldn't hear yourself think ! Then some time 
during the holidays the Korean Christians in 
Pastor Won's church were all invited in for an 
evening's fun, and on New Year's day, every- 
body, foreigners and natives, came to call. 

That was rather a trying function, for some of 
the natives who came, didn't know foreign cus- 
toms, and threw orange skins, etc., on the floors, 
and some of the high men who came couldn't be 
received in the same room with the low men, 
and some of the natives stayed too long, when 
so many were waiting to be seen, and some 
wouldn't talk, and Mrs. Won's brains were in a 
bad way with the cudgelling they received to 
make them evolve subjects of conversation, so 
that when the day was over there wasn't much 



146 Brown Eyes 

left of her, especially as there never had been 
very much to begin with. 

But perhaps you will think from all this that 
the life of a missionary is a very gay one, quite 
full of parties, suppers and other social entertain- 
ments. But if I caused any such impressions by 
these tales of Christmas doings I have misrepre- 
sented matters quite considerably. 

No matter how inspiring the main object of the 
work may be, or how devoted and enthusiastic 
the missionary, any work that amounts to any- 
thing, means a great deal of w^earisome drudgery, 
and takes obedient faithfulness, from moment to 
moment — and many, many moments when there 
is no applauding crowd looking on, nothing in 
the detail itself to inspire or reward, when people 
have nothing to support them but God's Spirit, 
urging obedience and faithfulness. To tell of all 
that is not entertaining and you would never 
bother to read it, even if a publisher could be 
found to print it. One day just like another, 
mixing medicines, listening to revolting stories 
of people's pains and aches, trying to be sympa- 
thetic and helpful, teaching stupid children 
arithmetic and geography, translating English 
into Korean books, jogging along weary miles 
in the country, sleeping in dirty inns, trying to 
overcome the deadening indifference of heathen- 
ism, struggling to be patient and forbearing with 
dishonest, lazy and dirty servants, there is noth- 



The Daily Grind 147 

ing interesting in it at all, yet it must go on, and 
much more Uke it, day in and day out, month 
after month and year after year. Just the com- 
mon every-day work that anybody with a con- 
science does anywhere. Nothing great or good 
or noble or interesting about it. They couldn't 
even feel they were great or heroic or in any 
way uncommon, or that what they were doing 
was remarkable in results. They just knew for 
their comfort, and it was all that sustained them, 
that they were where God had sent them, trying 
with more or less faithfulness to obey His com- 
mands and follow His guiding hand, and with- 
out seeing much, left results to Him, and always 
the vision of the coming of the Kingdom and the 
King, put life into humdrum detail. 

So as I said, I'm afraid the tale of the daily 
doings of the Wons and their fellows would not 
make at all an interesting book. I am trying to 
cull out the bright bits in order to give it sufB- 
cient attraction for you. 

All the year round Pastor Won did about so 
much literary work every day, and that means 
translating Bible, hymns, tracts, preparing news- 
paper articles, Sunday-school articles, etc. Then 
he did about so much personal work each day, 
with his helpers, writing a letter to this little 
group, sending some wise Christian to these, 
overseeing colporteurs, listening to reports from 
distant localities, meeting natives, believers and 



148 Brown Eyes 

otherwise, who had come likely miles to see him, 
meeting in committees with other missionaries, 
holding training classes of leaders of country 
work, teaching in the boys' school, preaching, 
exhorting, guiding in the native church in Seoul, 
receiving the visits of high native gentlemen and 
returning them, and doing ever so many things 
besides, from six in the morning, often till long 
past bedtime. 

The Bible translating was considered one of 
the most important parts of Pastor Won's work, 
and that went right on, nearly all the time. 
Perhaps you wonder why it takes so long? 
Well, look in on them and see what it is like. 

First of all, each man took the especial part he 
had been given to do, and worked over it alone 
with his literary helper. He read the original 
Hebrew or Greek, very carefully, the Revised 
Version and the best commentaries in order to 
glean the exact meaning of the Holy Spirit. He 
also studied the Chinese version, the Latin and 
often the German, French and Spanish, in order 
to profit by the views of the translators of those 
copies, and having arrived at what seemed the 
plain, clear intent of the original, his next task 
by no means an easy one, was to convey it to 
the brain of the Korean literary helper on whom 
he must depend, to express it, in pure and idio- 
matic Korean. But as most of these ideas are en- 
tirely new to these men, it often took hours. 



Bible Translation 149 

trying by symbols, illustrations, parallels, to 
make it possible for them to grasp and appre- 
ciate them. Then, and it was no less difficult, 
came the effort to find words to express these 
abstract ideas. 

The native would roll off, with great satisfac- 
tion, some stately and scholarly sentence, full of 
words of Chinese derivation, which the poor 
women and farmer folks could no more under- 
stand than so much English, besides it lost its 
finer shades of meaning. " No, that won't do,'^ 
says Mr. Missionary ; " it must be simpler, and 
you haven't entirely grasped the idea." The na- 
tive is obstinate or stupid, or both, argues about 
it, cannot express it differently, he says. But the 
missionary is determined ; he does not let it go 
till it is right ; so they struggle on. When Mat- 
thew or Romans or whatever it is, is finished, 
then the whole committee meet and go over that 
one man's work, for one man alone may not be 
trusted, will not trust himself, to put a translation 
of the Bible in the people's hands. Now there 
are differences of judgment, and they argue and 
study more hours still, till some agreement is 
reached, and a *' tentative " version is put before 
the natives. That means they do not consider it 
fit for a permanent place in the use of the Church, 
but in order that it may be well tried, criticised, 
by missionaries and Korean Christians, and after 
several years of trial again revised, they publish 



150 Brown Eyes 

it though imperfect. Sometimes the average of 
translation for months was not more than three 
verses a day, never more than from seven to 
twenty verses, in four hours. Only the strongest 
of them, without great mental exhaustion and 
strain could stand more than four hours at a 
stretch of this work. So they were more than 
ten years getting out a tentative version of the 
New Testament, and congratulated themselves 
on having done it so quickly. But all this was 
no play ; there was little in the play line in Korea 
for the missionaries. The Wons and some 
others discovered, through sad experience, how- 
ever, that nature and nerves rebel against all 
work and no play, all the time, so they kept the 
holidays with vigour and mirth quite religiously ; 
birthdays, too (Washington's of course), even the 
wedding anniversary, and Fourth of July. When 
the mail arrived that was an evejit ; sometimes 
people, Americans or foreigners were born or 
died, which was an event, or a new foreigner 
came, or once in a long time there was even a 
wedding. 

Every year Pastor Won made at least one 
long trip to the country to Christian groups, two 
or three hundred miles away from Seoul, and 
then there were other shorter visits to villages 
nearer. 

I am sure that this which is called evangelistic 
work was what he enjoyed most ; preaching the 





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The Anniuil Trip 151 

gospel to sinners, guiding and instructing the 
country Christians, examining and receiving into 
the fold the applicants for baptism, training the 
leaders and shepherding the flock. 

He nearly always walked on these trips. The 
Korean ponies couldn't go fast enough to suit 
him, and he was too impatient to like the tire- 
some little jog-jog. 

Mamma Won went in a native pokyo, or 
carrying chair, and so did Brown Eyes and his 
Amah, who used to go together in one chair. 
She had to go to cook their food and attend to 
the youngster while his Amonni was talking and 
singing wath the women. 

As he grew older he rebelled against the chair 
very often, and soon walked several miles each 
day. When not quite seven, he walked and 
played along the road ten miles in a day, without 
seeming at all tired ; quite happy and delighted 
to be there aw^ay off in the wilds, among the 
mountains and woods with his *' Dearests." 
Some of the country they travelled over was 
beautiful, the air was exhilarating, the atmos- 
phere positively brilliant and they were all a little 
of the Bohemian cut, and loved this out-of-door 
life. They used to say they never felt so near 
heaven as when in their plainest, roughest garb, 
they left the world, even the very small, unim- 
posing, and dull world, of the Korean capital be- 
hind, and lived for weeks with the simple-minded, 



»52 



Brown Eyes 



earnest, sincere, country Christians, nature and 
nature's God. They saw and heard Him in the 
faces and voices of His dear people, and they 
felt Him in the lonely mountain passes, in the 
solemn woods, the blue skies, and *' nearer than 
breathing and thinking" embracing them al- 
ways. 

As for the Captain, he was in his element, 
closeted for hours with his leaders, chatting with 
the children, listening to all the questions and 
difficulties of everybody ; none could come too 
near or stay too long. He fairly froze to the 
people, and they to him, and yet that is not quite 
the figure to use, for there was never much 
freezing in the locality of the Captain. Brown 
Eyes, or I think I shall have to call him Harry 
now he is growing so, looked a funny little fellow 
in his overalls, trotting along by his father's side 
which was never very far from his mother's chair. 
There were goodies in that chair besides mamma. 
There were sandwiches, bits of simple Korean 
candy, dried persimmons, and sometimes choco- 
late. There were tracts, too, and a hymn-book, 
and when the chair was set down for the bearers 
to rest, and a crowd of women and children gath- 
ered, while his Amonni was singing and talking 
to the people, he would often take some tracts 
and pass them shyly around. Often the people 
were too curious to listen to the talking, they 
wanted to comment on the foreigners and their 



Music Hath Charms 153 

clothes, but they were never too curious to listen 
to the singing, for that was stranger and more 
interesting than anything. 

Think of it, they had never heard a woman 
sing a real song with a sweet tune. 

They have a few little songs, with just a few 
tunes (I do not suppose a half dozen in the whole 
country), and the women hardly ever sing even 
thesCo 

As the party passed along, the Captain, whose 
eyes nothing escaped, always spied the first 
spring wild flower, or the last bloom of depart- 
ing summer, then with great care that mamma 
Won should not see, he would pick it and give 
it to Harry to present. But she knew well where 
it came from, and that flower carried a double 
share of perfume and glowed with a double por- 
tion of beauty. 

Mrs. Won loved flowers, and when they came 
by the hand of her little son, from the hand of 
her husband, from the hand of the Father, it 
was, well — indescribable. 

As she jogged along in her chair it spoke a 
parable after this fashion. '* As the husband is 
back of the child's gift, so back of all the love, 
every beauty, every blessing, every joy, stands 
the great Beauty, the Love, the Joy of the Uni- 
verse, the Father, the first Cause/' 

Speaking of country roads, perhaps my reader 
has a vision of New York or Wisconsin, and wide 



154 Brown Eyes 

roadways with fences of Virginia, rail fashion or 
barbed wire. 

Nothing of that sort in Korea, where wood is, 
except in the inland northern provinces, very 
scarce, and barbed wire unknown. For miles 
upon miles no fences at all divide the fields from 
each other, or the roads, which are, with the excep- 
tion of the near vicinity to large towns, mere foot- 
paths, crossing each other in bewildering fashion. 

You are directed to take the main or great road ; 
you hunt in vain for it, and learn at length it is 
only the great road because it is the main road, 
and only the main road because it leads from one 
large centre to another. Sometimes it leads over 
paddy fields, being barely wide enough for the 
traveller with great circumspection to pick his 
way along, for it is slippery with clay mud. 

When Mrs. Won's chair coolies, tired with a 
long day's service, slipped and stumbled along, 
jumping at times over wide intervening ditches, 
when everything depended on jumping together 
and jumping true, she would have much pre- 
ferred to walk, if she could. But when the even- 
ing shades had fallen, and the only ray shed on 
their path was that of a feeble Korean lantern 
which was like the ghost of a light that had died 
of anaemia centuries before, the situation was 
really past a joke ; still such small annoyances 
did not really count, and these outings were 
better than play to the whole family. 



VII 

A TOUR 

Not long after the return from the river and 
the passing of the Christmas hoHdays, the Won 
family started on one of their long trips to Whang 
Hai Do, the Yellow Sea Province, where lay so 
large a part of their field of work. There weren't 
any trains, or as I have said, any roads to speak 
of but footpaths. They were as happy as chil- 
dren let out of school. They were expecting to 
be out of doors travelling all day long, for days 
and days in the finest climate in the world, and 
in one of the most beautiful parts of a fair land, 
and all together, and they were going among 
simple-hearted, kindly, humble farmer folk, whom 
they loved, and many of whom loved them. That 
was enough to make any family happy, but the 
chief reason was different, and it was more than 
all the rest. They knew they were going to 
carry a light to people who never had seen or 
only through a glass darkly, and they were on 
the King's business, the thought of which alone 
gives dignity and joy. 

As they pushed along, they laughed and chat- 
ted, passed the compliments of the day with the 
people they met, sometimes stopping to try an 

155 



156 A Tour 

echo, or to drink from a clear, cold spring-, or to 
have a little friendly talk at some farmhouse. 
The Captain had his gun, and now and then 
shot a pheasant or a pigeon or a wild goose. 
Often they came to some shallow stream, but 
the coolies unwrapped their bandaged feet, and 
splashed indifferently across. Once they came 
to a river, unusually wide and swollen for that 
time of year. In the rainy season of course they 
take down the bridges, for they are all " knock 
down" you know, like the furniture that comes 
out to the East, and have the same sad tendency 
to knock down unbidden, at unauspicious mo- 
ments, and so the river would carry them all 
away, if the thrifty builders didn't remove them. 
Like nearly all of its kind, the bridge in question 
was simply a footway of one or two planks, laid 
on very slight wooden supports and covered 
with sod. It extended about one hundred and 
fifty feet from one bank to the other. Mrs. Won 
was nervous about these bridges, or anything 
that looked a little uncertain, and though rather 
lame, she insisted upon leaving the pokyo. The 
Captain warned her she was almost sure to be 
dizzy on that narrow footway with nothing to 
hold by ; but dizzy or no she dared not trust the 
chair. Dizzy was the word, where the bridge 
was highest and narrowest, and the river swiftest 
and noisiest, but by not looking down, and cling- 
ing like a leach to the Captain, she had managed 



A Dangerous Bridge 157 

to pass safely over two-thirds of it when lo ! right 
before them, the whole footpath had been broken 
away, the boards lying loosely, pardy in the 
water, partly on the lower end of the rude sup- 
ports. 

Now indeed the Wons were glad she had not 
remained in that chair, for on that narrow place, 
the coolies could neither turn, nor had they room 
to set the chair down safely on the bridge. As 
it was the Captain managed with the help of 
loose boards, to find enough foothold to clamber 
to the other side, and reaching a hand to her, to 
help his fellow traveller safely across. As for the 
coolies, the empty chair being quite light, they 
managed dexterously, somehow, as they always 
do, and all were soon safely on the further shore. 
The ox-carts usually flounder through the fords, 
no one knows just how, Fm sure they do not 
themselves, but in the worst floods, they do not 
attempt it ; while chair coolies take to the 
bridges, when they exist, and at other times 
there are usually ferryboats within call at the 
main points of travel. The ferrymen are a very 
interesting and entertaining class when one isn't 
raking one's larynx, and wearing out one's pa- 
tience, shouting in vain on the wrong side of the 
river for them to come. 

Arrived at one of the farm villages where 
there were a company of believers, the whole 
town came out to meet our missionary party, 



1 ^8 A Tour 

and were lined up on either side of the road, 
staring at the foreigners, with eyes in which it 
was easy to read contempt, disUke, curiosity and 
a poHte but vain attempt to conceal amusement 
at the ridiculous attire and general appearance 
of these " wayinduli." 

They, the Wons, felt themselves anything but 
an admirable spectacle, weary, dusty, in camping 
attire, they were not proud. But lo ! forth before 
the assembled body of their scofBng neighbours, 
came the little handful of Christians, just two 
families, and met the missionaries with as joyous 
and cordial a welcome as though they had been 
lords, and conducted them almost with reverence, 
certainly with devotion and respect into their 
humble dwellings. 

It would not ordinarily have been an easy 
thing for any one to do, thus to receive and wel- 
come the ridiculous foreigners, and at the same 
time before their whole world reaffirm themselves 
believers in the strange new doctrines, renegades 
to the faith of their fathers, and to the spirits of 
their ancestors. 

" Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before 
men^ him shall I also confess before My Father 
who is in heaven^'' were the words that floated 
through Mrs. Won's mind, for she realized that 
it called for considerable moral courage, and firm 
devotion to the cause, to enable these poor peas- 
ants to brave public sentiment. A little later 



1 



Sufferings of a Christian Bride 159 

they learned that the first Christian who came to 
the village was a young bride. 

Now the position of a bride is not under any 
circumstances an easy one. A very young girl, 
usually a perfect stranger to her mother-in-law, 
as well as her husband and his entire family, she 
is at the beck and call of all, and general maid 
of all work. She is to obey without reply, she is 
not expected to speak even when spoken to, ex- 
cept by prompt and meek acquiescence. One 
of her duties is to prepare the sacrifices for an- 
cestral worship, and to join in the devotions. 

How then is a meek and frightened young girl 
to preach a strange religion to her superiors, 
how is she to avoid labouring at ironing, wash- 
ing, sewing, etc., on Sundays, how to escape the 
preparations for idolatrous worship, and partici- 
pation in these forbidden rites ? 

And yet all this dared this one little saxie, 
alone many miles from friends and supporters, 
many miles from a church or teachers, in a whole 
village full of heathen people. 

Her surprised and enraged family protested, 
scolded and beat her. She was covered with 
revilings, reproaches and ridicule, and finally 
threatened with the greatest disgrace that can 
befall a woman, that of being flung back upon 
her parents, scorned, deserted, unfit for her hus- 
band's house. 

It would be difficult to picture, or for any of 



i6o A Tour 

us to realize, the misery of that young girl's con- 
dition, while she stood alone for months, witness- 
ing a good confession. 

**The noble army of martyrs" has a grand di- 
vision in Korea, and many a little shrinking girl 
will be found written in its books. One whom I 
know was indeed cast out and is now dying of a 
broken heart from the shame and sorrow, be- 
cause she steadily refused to give up her faith. 
But here, at last, instead of being sent away, 
her husband yielded to the influence of her life 
and example, they two stood together, and ere 
long the father, then the mother, and so little by 
little the whole family put away their old idols 
and superstitions, and led by the youngest, 
joined in the worship of the One True 
God. 

Then, little by little, the family living next that 
one, also, came to believe, and these were the 
people whom the Wons came to encourage, 
teach and receive into the visible Church. 

When the people came to be baptized this was 
the usual way they were questioned, and the 
way some replied. 

Q, Do you love Jesus ? 

A. He is beautiful to me. 

Q. Have you anything in your house that 
you worship? (meaning of course fetishes, idols 
or tablets). 

A. Yes, the Lord Jesus. 



A Converted Prize-Fighter 161 

Q. (To a little boy). Are you sure your sins 
are all forgiven? 

A. (Hesitating). Ye-es, only just a tiny bit 
left over. 

Q. Where is Jesus now? 

A. In His Capital. 

Q. What has become of all your past sins? 

A. Jesus will take care as to them. 

The people seemed so full of faith and simple 
heroism, without the faintest idea that they were 
glorious, that there were many the hem of whose 
robes Mrs. Won felt she was not fit to kiss. 

In one of the first villages visited, the chief 
man of the place had formerly been a prize- 
fighter, and one evening when all were telling 
their experiences (for they love to get together 
and tell what God has done for them), old Mr. 
Yu, who now with his entire family, even his 
married grandchildren, has been a firm believer 
for several years, told his story. 

He said he had heard reports of a new religion 
which foreigners were introducing, but had paid 
little attention, supposing it was only accepted by 
the lowest and most worthless of the Koreans, 
but one evening on returning to his home, from 
a long distance, more or less tipsy as usual, he 
found that a highly respected and well-to-do 
friend of his, the chief man of another village, 
had through the entire day been making the 
rounds of his township from house to house, with 



i62 A Tour 

a jickcy load of Christian books on his back, 
which he and his ladyUke wife had been per- 
suading all the neighbours to buy. 

This was astounding news ! First, that a man 
of quality should condescend to carry a jickey. 
Second, that he should go peddling Christian 
books ! Third, that his wife should leave the 
privacy of her home and accompany him. 

He was dazed and confounded. What could 
it mean ? He began to feel as though the foun- 
dations of all his old ideas and prejudices were 
shaking under him. This Christian religion 
must be something quite different from what he 
had thought, if it could lead a man like the Hon. 
Mr. Ko to give up his pride, and go forth thus to 
sell books, and still more, could it lead a woman 
of Mrs. Ko's standing, to give up her conserva- 
tive ideas, for women are always the slowest and 
last to give up old customs and prejudices. 

There was another peculiarity about Mr. Ko's 
conduct which both annoyed and irritated Mr. 
Yu. He had left no books at his own house. 
How was this ? Had he, Yu, sunk so low, was 
he considered such a hopeless prizefighter, 
gambler and drunkard that he was not fit to be 
taught this despised religion ? Had they con- 
sidered him unworthy even to be offered one of 
these books ? 

He raged round his house in a half-drunken 
fury, and vowed he would not be thus ignored ; 



Yu and His Book 163 

he too would have one of these books, and that 
too as soon as he had eaten his supper. 

Forth then he went, found Mr. Ko, and claimed 
his right to a book, reproaching his old friend for 
his neglect. 

The omission was soon and gladly enough 
rectified, and now Mr. Yu proceeded to "study 
the doctrine." The book which he had first 
bought was a simple beginner's catechism, which 
he quickly read through and then others fol- 
lowed. He was soon completely convinced in- 
tellectually, loudly proclaiming himself a Chris- 
tian, though he had experienced no change of 
heart, and still kept on drinking, often to excess. 
About this time one of the butchers, the most 
despised of all classes, who had become a Chris- 
tian long ago, called upon him, hearing of his 
professions, and claimed brotherhood. *' This is 
great," said Mr. Blank ; " now we will meet and 
worship, sometimes at your place, sometimes at 
mine." *' Not a bit of it," said his very frigid 
brother, who had no mind to consort with low 
butchers, even if they were Christians. *' Not at 
all, sir ; please keep your place ; you may worship 
in your own house, I in mine ; we will have no 
intercourse with butchers." 

The butcher who had been looking about him, 
however, remarked, " That pleases me, too, for I 
see you have not destroyed your objects of 
worship or put away heathen customs, so we 



164 A Tour 

cannot be brothers," whereupon he took his 
leave. 

Scorned by a butcher ! To be scorned by one 
that he scorned ! Things were certainly coming 
to a strange pass. And then through his tipsy 
mind flashed the thought that he had not really 
become a Christian in anything but loud and 
empty professions. No wonder this low man 
despised him ; he had not put away his idols, the 
first thing every catechumen and beginner in the 
faith always does. 

This man never did anything by halves. He 
had gambled, drank and fought with his might, 
and now, with the added heat of liquor in his 
great throbbing veins, he not only pulled down 
the bunch of tawdry bits supposed to be the resi- 
dence of the household spirits and burned it up, 
but in spite of the protests of his alarmed wife 
and family who considered him demented, he 
proceeded to ruthlessly destroy all the family 
ancestral tablets, containing the records and 
genealogies of the whole clan of which he was 
the chief. 

Wide-spread was the consternation and fury. 
The news spread, and the outraged clansmen 
took a vow to come and burn and pull down his 
house over his sacrilegious ears. 

He was now resolved to make a clean sweep 
of everything. Nothing should be left that 
was not yielded, and so he determined that 



Forced Prayer 165 

his whole family willy nilly, should become be- 
lievers. 

His wife, however, had a mind of her own, and 
would not be forced into the kingdom of heaven 
which her violent husband seemed resolved to 
take by force ; she was shocked and horrified by 
this vandalism and destruction of all the old ob- 
jects of her reverence and awe. 

She recoiled from this sudden turning to new 
ideas of which she knew nothing, and regarded 
it as a drunken and insane freak of her husband, 
who had sorely tried her patience for many a 
long year, but never as sorely as now. Korean 
women are long-suffering, and endure much, but 
they are also obstinate and very conservative, and 
there are some things they cannot be forced into 
doing. 

So now when her lord had bade her ''be- 
lieve ! " she very positively, plainly, concisely and 
briefly told him she wouldn't. 

She had never defied him before, and this was 
not only unbelievable, but unbearable. " Pray ! " 
shouted he at the top of his lungs, but not one 
whit budged she. 

Something must be done and at once ; so 
gripping her by the back of the neck with his 
mighty fist, he forced her to the attitude of devo- 
tion, and more loudly than ever reiterated 
'' Pray !'' 

The obstinate woman, however, would utter no 



i66 A Tour 

word of prayer, so Yu felt himself obliged to pray 
for her. 

Few and brief were his words, uttered, it is to 
be feared, in no spirit of true prayer, or with as yet 
a mere glimmering of knowledge of the God he 
was ignorantly worshipping, not knowing what 
manner of spirit he was of, as also some of us 
who suppose ourselves more enlightened. 

'' O Lord send Thy Holy Spirit and convert 
this wicked wife of mine. Amen," holding her 
firmly down all the time till he had finished. 
Such were the beginnings of this strange man's 
religion ; but gradually the light dawned upon 
his own soul, his eyes were opened wide, and he 
learned that not in loud professions, in keeping 
certain laws, or in mere intellectual acceptance of 
truth, did the essence of true Christianity consist, 
but in the Spirit of the Master, of which these 
were no more than some of the outward forms. 
He began to see that love was more than whole 
burnt-offerings and sacrifies. 

Our Friend, our Brother, and our Lord 

What may Thy service be ? 
Nor name, nor form, nor ritual word 

But simply following Thee. 
We bring no ghastly holocaust 

We pile no graven stone 
He serves Thee best who loveth most 

His brothers and Thy own. 
Thy litanies sweet offices of love and gratitude 
Thy sacramental liturgies 
The joy of doing good. 



Travelling Accommodations 167 

So when the spirit of the Little Child had en- 
tered Mr. Yu's heart, he became quite a changed 
man, and meekly went over to the neighbouring 
town and paid a visit to his humble neighbour, 
the butcher. I don't know what they said, but 
they had a happy time together, and it was then 
arranged that services should be held in each of 
their homes on alternate Sundays. Of course 
with this sort of Christianity in the man's heart, 
his wife and whole family now became truly con- 
verted ; from being the terror of the whole vicin- 
ity he has become the Christian leader, and has 
for years been respected and honoured wherever 
he is known. 

In most of the little communities visited, there 
were only the poorest and humblest little straw- 
thatched huts, and the quarters occupied by the 
missionaries were neither spacious nor even clean, 
quite the contrary commonly. 

One evening having arrived at such a village, 
they were shown into a room belonging to the 
church which was more than usually small. 
Mrs. Won looked round in dismay. Where 
could even two camp beds be stretched ? It was 
hardly larger than a good sized pantry. A door 
leading into an adjoining room stood partly 
open. She peeped in. It was larger, sunny, 
clean looking. Why could they not go in there? 
This was the question she asked her husband 
without delay. He gave some evasive answer, 



i68 A Tour 

and put the matter away as past consideration. 
But Mrs. Won was not convinced, as a good 
wife should have been, being one of those 
troublesome persons who always want to know 
the reasons of things. She had not learned that 
it was hers not to reason why, 



Hers not to make reply, 
Hers but to do and die. 



You see the Captain was to a blameworthy ex- 
tent, lax in the discipline of his family. 

So his wife returned again to the attack and 
was again put ofT. But this \vould not do ; why 
indeed should they suffocate in that little oven ? 
Thus pressed, the Captain had nothing for it but 
to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but 
the truth. In the coveted room, was a coffin con- 
taining the remains of a woman who had died of 
typhns fever 7iearly four 7nonths ago ! 

Poor Mrs. Won was aghast. She would open 
Bluebeard's closet and this w^as what she got. 

" And we sleeping in the next room ! " was her 
first horrified comment. There had been an 
epidemic of typhus the preceding summer in 
that locality, and several had died. Nearly 
every house in the little Christian community 
had been infected. Of course nobody ever 
dreams of such a thing as disinfection, or would 
know how to accomplish it if they did ; wells are 



I 



Keeping the Dead i6g 

carelessly dealt with, and in every way possible, 
every law of hygiene is outraged. 

The dead are frequently kept months after 
death before burial, especially in the homes of 
the rich and great, where it is the custom to con- 
sult the soothsayers as to the auspicious time 
and place. They often change their oracular 
minds, and postpone from time to time, not of 
course with a view of getting more fees, far from 
it, that is only incidental, of course. Spirits, it 
seems, are not like popes, infallible, and often 
alter their instructions repeatedly. 

This was the case, in setting the day and ap- 
pointing the locality of the grave of Her Majesty 
the late Queen, and after she had at length been 
laid to rest, and quietly reposed some two or 
three years, in the place selected by the spiritual 
powers, His Majesty was informed that the grave 
site must again be changed, and the poor Queen 
go forth in further quest of a resting-place. 

In the case of our poor farmer country Chris- 
tians and their typhus fever corpse, there were 
entirely different reasons for delay. The weather 
was hot and very wet, the rainy season being on, 
the casket and its carriers must have travelled 
far in a drenching rain ; and so after embalming 
the remains and sealing the casket of wood as 
well as they knew how, they put it in the little 
church to wait a proper time of interment. After 
the rains crops must be gathered, for there had 



lyo A Tour 

been a terrible two years' famine in all that 
region and nothing must be risked. When the 
harvests were all gathered in, then Death's har- 
vest should be laid away in his garner, too. 

Speaking of crops makes me think of another 
incident which occurred at this place. Pastor 
Won's stay in any of these little neighbourhoods 
was sadly brief, as there were many waiting their 
turn, and he must return only too soon at a fixed 
date to Bible translating at Seoul. So there was 
only one night for the little village. 

Word had been sent before that all applicants 
for baptism might be on hand when he came, for 
only one night could he be with them. So in the 
afternoon of his arrival all were called in, one at 
a time and examined. 

Directly after supper a solemn service of bap- 
tism and partaking of the sacred feast, the Lord's 
Supper. Only once or twice a year, at the 
oftenest, was this blessed privilege possible to 
this poor flock, and highly indeed did they value 
it, sacred and precious the occasion. 

Just before the service was over, an elderly 
woman came in, whom all welcomed as a sister 
believer. Though nothing particular regarding 
her was learned by the Wons that night, next 
morning at daybreak the pastor saw her about 
to start back home, and learned she had come 
ten miles, after her field w^ork was done, the night 
before, in order to be baptized, and arrived too 



A Heroic Woman 171 

late. *'But why did you not come earlier?" said 
he. She replied that she was in charge of some 
fields belonging to rich people from a distance ; 
they had come to receive their crops, and she 
could not leave till it was too dark to work more, 
and now she must hasten back in order to begin 
the day's work as early as possible. She had 
been a believer for over three years, but living 
so far from the other Christian groups, and the 
stopping places of the missionaries, had never 
been able to reach the centre where one was 
staying, in time to be baptized, or partake with 
her brethren of the blessed feast. 

Never mind, dear sister, there is the General 
Assembly and Church of the first-born to which 
you belong, and you shall sit down at the Mar- 
riage Supper of the Lamb, and your name is 
written in the book that Angels keep, and He 
shall give you a white stone with your new name, 
and the Father and the Son shall come in and 
sup with you and you with them, and though 
you are disappointed and feel left out now, there 
will be no mistakes and no leaving out there. 

Pastor Won would have baptized her then and 
there, could she have waited, but it was already 
late, she must hurry away ; and so the dear soul 
is still waiting outside the visible though a 
patient member of the invisible Church. 

The Korean women prize highly their new 
names. They are never formally named as the 



172 A Tour 

men are, and as has been said before, are only 
called Somebody's mother or Somebody's wife, 
but when baptized it is necessary for their enroll- 
ment and, to prevent mistakes, that each shall be 
named, so they are called Mercy, Faith, Love, 
Patience, etc., with a Chinese character which 
agrees with their husband's name. It is amusing 
and a litde pathetic to see how highly they cher- 
ish these Christian names, the first they ever had. 
Harry, although such a little fellow, took a 
great interest already in the Christians, and es- 
pecially in one elderly man who had tramped 
miles over the country preaching the gospel, and 
was one of the most useful of all the native 
leaders and helpers. " Mamma will not know 
Mr. Saw when we get to heaven," said he. "She 
will see a gentlemanly old foreigner come in, and 
never guess that it is he." '* Foreigner," of 
course meaning in the child's mind, American, 
and Mrs. Won began to suspect that she too had 
been unconsciously assuming that everybody in 
heaven would be Americans or Europeans, and 
by the time they reached there, with enlightened 
eyes, no doubt Presbyterians, her own beloved, 
honoured sect, the best of them all ; and yet, now 
she seemed to hear the echo of a noble rhyme, 

" Our little systems have their day, 

They have their day and cease to be ; 
They are but broken lights of Thee, 

And Thou, oh. Lord, art more than they," 



The Natives Play Halma 173 

and again, still nobler and sweeter, the inspired 
words, " IVc shall be like Him, when He shall 
appear, for we shall see Him as He is,^^ and she 
was content. 

The incidents told in this chapter illustrate the 
sort of experiences the Wons usually met with 
in their country travels. Harry took his school 
books along, his camera, his paint-box and two 
or three games. The natives went quite wild 
over Halma, made themselves boards and men, 
practiced it a few days, and then would give 
Harry ten moves in advance and beat him quite 
out of sight, though he was no mean player. 
They were wonderfully keen in the game, twenty 
questions, too, and would soon locate the most 
insignificant objects, in the most unheard-of 
places with unerring accuracy. He taught them 
some of his outdoor games, too, not the least 
appreciated of which, was leap-frog. 

He learned to aim fairly with his bow and 
arrow, and looked forward with impatience to 
the time when he should shoulder a shotgun like 
his father, and help supply the family larder. 
They had a feeling no more should be killed 
than they needed, and were sure the hunting was 
markedly unsuccessful except on these occasions. 

We cannot follow them through all their rounds 
on this trip, but let it suffice to say, that in less 
than six weeks they found their way back to the 
dear home, rather shabby, rather hungry for 



174 



A T 



our 



home food, and longing for orderly home ways, 
a little tired, but fresh, ruddy, sunburned, full of 
stores of strength laid up during those weeks of 
gipsy life, and full of new enthusiasm and inspi- 
ration, enkindled through close contact with the 
simple, glowing faith of the country Christians, 
and the long hours alone with God as they 
travelled from place to place, and they thanked 
Him that He had cast their lines in such pleas- 
ant places. 





VIII 

AT THE RIVER 

When Harry went to the river the following- 
July, with his parents, a summer cottage had 
been built on the hill for them, above the little 
native hut they enjoyed so much before, for 
although that was very nice for cold fall days 
and nights, it was rather stuffy, hot and un- 
healthy for long weeks of heat and rain. 

I would like to show you that place at the 
river which was such a refuge to the Wons, for 
many summers, and not to them only, but to 
others who fled with them from the heat, poison- 
ous vapours and diseases of the capital during 
two or three very trying months each year. The 
bluff which they had bought rose in three ter- 
races some fifty or sixty feet above the surface 
of the river, which almost encircled its base, 
curving around it lovingly crescent wise. 

The bank was crowned on its topmost level 
by a grove of noble pines, oaks and chestnuts. 
Where its feet touched the water, were beautiful 
white sands and great boulders where the chil- 
dren loved to play, for from four o^ clock it was 
in the shadow of the hill above it, and the cool 
evening breeze brought its first whispers and 

175 



176 At the River 

kisses here. That first summer not much had 
been done, but if you could see it now ! Neither 
Pastor Won nor his wife cared much for artifi- 
cially stif^ grounds or gardens, but they loved 
flowers, and here was plenty of room for any- 
thing. Little by little the house grew, a room 
added here or a porch there, and now it has 
wide verandas at the front and back and up-stairs, 
too. 

The evening breeze comes up very cool from 
the northwest, so at one of its north corners, 
where it stands cheek by jowl with a dear old 
pine, so close and friendly, that they had to cut 
off a piece of one of the rooms, was built a cir- 
cular piazza, right round the tree, extending 
twelve feet from it in width, so that the house, 
as it were, threw a loving arm round the pine, 
making it an inmate of the household and mem- 
ber of the family. So there, while round its 
trunk the children play, the house mother sings 
and all the busy happy home life hums about, it 
reaches far above them all, and with arms stretch- 
ing heavenward, like some high priestly guard- 
ian, seems to be forever supplicating heaven for 
the creatures of its care, murmuring unceasing 
orisons, and bringing from above sweet, low 
messages breathed by the spirits of the air. 

People counselled the Wons to destroy that 
tree. *' It will pull down your house," said they. 
*' It will grow larger and crowd you out." But 



The Wons' Favorite View 177 

the Wons who were real tree lovers said, '' No, 
another house might be built, but not another 
such tree, and if the dear old friend should grow 
larger in girth with increasing years, and need 
more room they would do with less house." The 
tree was the genius of the place, no one could 
spare him, so there he remained and received all 
the family confidences, and through the long 
winter months stood faithfully on guard. 

Besides the tree there was a vine on the back 
piazza too. It wreathed round the pillars and 
confidingly threw its long graceful creepers in- 
side, adorning the ceiling with its cool, green 
leaves. There was a view from "the deck," as 
they called it, as there was from every side of the 
house, but this was the most restful of all I think. 
It looked over the back garden and the fair fields 
in the river basin, to the beautiful green hills on 
the other side of the valley. There was a peace- 
ful little village nestling on the side of the hill, 
and just a glimpse of the river and the masts of 
some of the junks and fishing craft lying at 
anchor there. Winding up the hill was a road, 
which passed between two grotesque old pine- 
trees and then mysteriously disappeared. You 
could imagine all sorts of things about that road. 
Mrs. Won used to think it was very like the one 
the Lady of Shallott saw in her mirror. Some- 
times a Korean chair came jogging along, some- 
times a woman with a bowl or a bundle of clothes 



178 At the River 

on her head, sometimes a jimkoon, his load on 
his baclc, or an ox and his driver, or a long string 
of pack ponies, with their saucy little riders. 
But at any minute there might come a fairy 
prince, or anything wonderful and unexpected 
from between those uncommon trees, and a road 
that went right into the sky like that. 

Sometimes when you half closed your eyes, 
you could see the whilom sleeping beauty lean- 
ing on her lover's arm, 

" As far across the hills they went, 
To that new world, which is the old. 

Across the hills and far away 
Beyond their utmost purple rim 

And deep into the dying day 
The happy princess followed him." 

It was not at all hard to see, I assure you, and 
that was where the road went, right across the 
purple rim, deep into the dying day. 

But best of all it was sweet to fancy it led right 
into the Golden City, the gates being always 
flung wide at eventide, and that perhaps some 
day, the blessed Messenger would issue thence, 
with the glory of the sun, the calm of the moon, 
and the tenderness of the Lord, to take one by 
the hand ; and quietly passing back leaning on 
His arm, one would enter thus, through the 
gates into the city, and so be forever with the 
Lord. 



A Holy Calm 179 

For all the sunsets were visible there in glory 
of rose bloom, amber and gold, and when they 
were gone, the young crescent moon would hang 
for a while, in the sw^eet pale gloom, smiling 
down on the house, the tree and the people, who 
smiled back, and had large charity for the heathen 
who once worshipped her. The Wons r used to 
bring their steamer chairs out on "the deck" 
after supper and recline there enjoying the rest- 
ful beauty of it all and the cool caresses of the 
ministering breeze, the angel of the sunset, who 
came after the long hot day on his errand of 
mercy. A holy calm enveloped all nature, on 
which lay the benison and peace of God. 

Down at their feet lay the garden. There was 
a great bed of lilies of the valley, half in the 
shadow of the bank and the grove. There were 
grape-vines full of luscious promise, there was 
thyme, sage and lavender, a long hedge of haw- 
thorn and there were raspberries, currants, and 
rows and rows of vegetables. 

On the low bank, separating the back from the 
front garden was a thick grove of young trees, 
and a few steps further on, the dear old grove. 

The west wind had a grand sweep over the 
valley, and sometimes when the monsoons were 
on — oh, but they are the lords of creation, and 
make themselves heard when they are about — 
there was a commotion and no mistake. It was 
a world of turmoil and topsy-turvy then, sure 



i8o At the River 

enough. Mrs. Won used to say the surging, 
swinging and swaying of tortured foliage was 
like the raging of the ocean, and positively made 
her seasick with its continuous sweep, rise and 
fall. 

In front, on the first terrace above the river, 
was more garden, with berries, fruit trees and 
vegetables. Here was long feathery asparagus 
with its red berries, here the sunflowers were al- 
lowed to riot, and just the loveliest double rose 
hollyhocks ! There was a litde spring that 
trickled down here, and in its bed grew crisp, 
cool water cresses. 

On the next terrace stood the little native 
house, now used by the servants and gardener, 
and not far from it, in the prettiest nook, shaded 
by a bower of trees was the well. A little above 
this lay meadows bordered round with young 
oaks and pines, and on the upper level, the 
homes. 

Pastor Won had asked two friends who had 
little ones, to share this place with him, and so 
each brought a third, and their houses stood 
there like three sisters, year by year. From the 
front of the Wons' house, especially the upper 
floor, — not much could be seen from the lower 
piazza, the house was so wreathed in vines and 
embowered in young trees, which they were not 
resolute enough to cut down — there was an en- 
chanting view. 



The Mountain View 181 

Down below, winding, curving among its high 
banks, so as to remind one of the ItaHan lakes, 
lay the river, sometimes a sheet of silver, some- 
times a sapphire jewel set on the broad bosom of 
mother earth. On its surface floated gracefully 
now and then the Korean fishing boats, with 
their gorgeous ochre sails, adding the one touch 
of brilliant colour to the subdued tones of the 
landscape. Beyond lay more green hills, and 
still beyond a long blue line of mountains. 

These mountains never presented the same 
aspect twice. In the morning sunshine they lay 
in melting shades of green and blue, with soft 
shadows lurking upon them. In the sunset glow 
they *' reposed in purple distance fair," or bathed 
in silver moonHght they assumed a weird, mys- 
terious grandeur. In the wet season they were 
more beautiful than ever, for then the nearer 
were robed in an exquisite misty veil of French 
gray, while those more distant, half revealed, 
half hidden, melted into the arms of the low- 
stooping clouds, and the passionate rain. Like 
a beautiful woman, who though unshakenly faith- 
ful, yet wears a thousand changing moods, and 
hides her love beneath a guise of fickleness and 
coquetry, these mountains seemed more dear, 
more beautiful with every change. 

The steep banks of the bluff were overgrown 
with a tangle of wild vines, wild flowers, bushes 
of sweet syringa, azalias and young oak and 



i82 At the River 

chestnut-trees. A path winds and climbs all 
round this bank, between the stately trees ; and 
just where the terrace falls to the river, under 
the wide-spreading arms of a friendly tree, is a 
bench, seated on which, in the grateful shade, 
the branches framing the whole picture, one can 
sit, unseen from the house or river, and feel one- 
self melt into it all. 

Here could be watched the glow of the sun- 
set reflected on the yellow hill and sands to the 
left of their bluff, the *' purple in the distance," 
and the shimmering leaves. Here one could 
listen to the gentle ripple of water, the occa- 
sional splash of oars, the humming of insects, the 
chirping of birds, the distant laughter of children, 
the soft rustling of foliage, the whisper of the 
wind, and all the sweet music of the quietness. 

There were two magnificent golden orioles, 
the aristocrats of the garden, very shy and ex- 
clusive, but now and then they would conde- 
scend and favour the residents of the cottages, 
with an outpouring of incomparable liquid music. 
Then of course there would follow at once, im- 
pertinent whisperings, and tiptoeings for a peep 
at the beautiful singers, and then a whirr of 
indignant wings, with nothing left to prove it 
was not an heavenly illusion but the swaying of 
some light branch in the tree-top. 

It was desecration, of course, to admit a horde 
of Chinese coolies to such a place. Certainly, it 



Painting the House 183 

was agonizing, but ten or fifteen of the greasiest, 
dirtiest, noisiest, most sacrilegious Chinamen had 
to be let loose into all that beauty and holy 
peace, among those hills, trees, birds and flowers. 

Worse still, the Wons had to order it them- 
selves. The house must be painted. Pastor 
Won was too busy, translating; Mrs. Won was 
sick on her couch and Harry was quite too 
small, so there it was, nothing for it but call the 
Chinamen. Pastor Won went off to the city to 
his work, the mother had her long cane chair 
and herself carried out to the grove where she 
could not see them, and could less distinctly hear 
their loud, rasping voices, their blood-curdling, 
out-of-tune falsetto songs, and all the " yahdon.'' 

And oh, such terrible work as they made of it 
all ! The roof was to be rather a dull red, and 
the house a subdued grayish green. So they 
climbed to the roof first, and daubed on the red 
paint, which, too thinly mixed, dripped down the 
walls, over the sweet fresh wisteria, rosebushes, 
and white lilacs, and lay on the ground like the 
ghastly results of some awful deed of blood. 

It was cruel, shocking, but there was more to 
come. They cooked their greasy food, and left 
their greasy dinner pails in the fair wide porch, 
leaving odours and stains unmentionable. With 
rags they washed the walls with green paint, 
which also trickled to the piazzas in little streams, 
and though the west wall was the colour indi- 



184 At the River 

cated by the owner, the south side was a peacock 
blue, the east an oUve green and the north 
another shade of greenish gray. This was har- 
rowing, but even this was not the end. When 
the balconies were to be painted, and they were 
left till the last, these men were told to paint 
them also green to match the door and window 
trimmings. This simple suggestion seemed dif- 
ficult for them to grasp, for an idea is elusive, 
largely to that order of Chinamen. Moreover, 
they spoke no English, the Wons, no Chinese ; 
therefore through the medium of mixed pidgeon 
English and badly mutilated Korean with the 
aid of shouts, the two parties tried, respectively, 
to elucidate and to apprehend what was desired. 
About an hour later Harry was seen running 
wildly to his mamma where she lay under the 
pines, breathing perfume and unsuspicious of 
disaster ; peacefully drinking in the harmonies 
of tint and sound about her, he was crying 
excitedly, " Mamma, mamma, they are painting 
the roof green." Mrs. Won had not walked 
more than a few steps at a time for weeks, but, 
under the stimulus of these words, she rose, 
dragged her unwilling limbs to a spot in full 
view of the house3 and beheld half the roof a 
vivid green. It was of course only a trivial 
thing, and had she been well she might have 
laughed, but under the circumstances it assumed 
the proportions of a calamity. Of course a mis- 



1 



Missionaries Are Yet Human 185 

sionary ought to be above caring what colour 
her roof may be, or mind whether her house is 
defaced or her flowers injured, but poor Mrs. 
Won was not at all a perfect missionary. She 
loved the natives and her work, but yet she 
loved beauty ; she had her ideals of how her 
house ought to look ; she took a keen pleasure 
in pretty ornaments, hats and dresses, etc., when 
her mother or sisters sent them from America, 
and I have seen her grieved over a piece of 
broken glass or china. You may as well know 
the truth about Mrs. Won ; she was very, very 
human, and never made any pretense of being 
otherwise. In fact she knew she was not nearly 
so noble, wise or good as many quiet Christian 
women whose only field is their home. 

In fact most missionaries, as far as I know 
them, are like most other Christians, sincere but 
imperfect. All of them, as far as I could judge, 
have gone to foreign lands under the deep and 
overwhelming conviction that their duty lay 
there, and some under a keen sense of sacrifice, 
some with as keen a pleasure in anticipation of 
inspiring work, have left more or less that was 
dear and tempting to answer that call. But they 
took with them human bodies and natures like 
those of other men, very weak and frail. Satan 
has a pass on every steamer and is very much 
at home on the foreign field, so that while one 
set of allurements and temptations has been left 



l86 At the River 

behind, his fertihty in inventions for trying men's 
souls has never failed, and the missionaries strug- 
gle along much like the rest of us, fighting, 
stumbling, perhaps falling now and then, but up 
and on again, with one aim, one hope, one joy, 
the King and the coming of the kingdom. They 
are beset with frailties, but like that other mis- 
sionary Paul, they forget what is behind, reach 
forward to what is before, and press towards the 
mark. 

I had to come down from the roof to explain 
about Mrs. Won, for probably most of you noted 
with pained surprise her solicitude about it. Yes, 
the one whole half was green, the other red, which 
meant a still longer visitation of the Chinese 
while the mistake was repaired, more bloody 
dye on vines and bushes, and still worse, trick- 
ling streams of red, down the sides of the green 
house and piazzas. 

'* Ah, well, I've cared too much about earthly 
things," thought she with accusing conscience ; 
"this is a lesson to teach me patience and a 
mind above little worldly affairs." Now when 
she could 

*' Find in loss a gain to match, 

And reach a hand through time, to catch 
The far off interest of tears," 

Mrs. Won always grew more content. It is a 
kind of moral commercialism ; Tennyson scorns 
it, but it is comforting at any rate. 



A Sure Cure For Cholera 187 

A fruitless grief, agony endured for naught 
seemed to her the most terrific possibility of sor- 
row, great or small. So she became resigned to 
her disappointment in the cottage itself, and 
found her joy more and more in the life, in, 
around and above it. After the Chinamen were 
gone, nature gradually asserted her sway, and 
mended things generally, as she always does 
when allowed. New leaves budded where those 
defaced and killed had been, vines grew lovingly 
over the glaring paint, summer suns and rains 
toned down all that was inharmonious, and like 
all our childish trials and tears, the loving Hand 
smoothed and wiped them all away. Many 
things happened that first summer at the river. 
First of all there was cholera all over the coun- 
try, but especially in the city, and the missionary 
fathers and mothers, too, had to leave the little 
ones with trusted caretakers, and spend days 
and weeks in the town nursing the sick and 
dying. 

There wasn't much cholera at the river because 
the cat was there. What had the cat to do with 
it, and what cat was it? 

Well, cholera, of course, you know, is the rat 
disease. You can feel the rats biting, and run- 
ning up your legs and arms if you have it, so 
there is no doubt. Now the hill across the valley, 
in which the pretty village nestled, was the cat. 
I never could see that it looked like a cat, but 



1 88 At the River 

that was what it was, and had been for ages, 
there was no disputing that, appearances to the 
contrary, and no matter what anybody said. As 
every one knows, rats won't go near a cat, so 
there you have it ; of course there could be no 
cholera in that neighbourhood. 

Koreans have many strange superstitions re- 
garding certain hills and mountains. The moun- 
tain of which the Wons' bluff was one of the 
lowest folds, was called the silk worm. Now to 
keep this worm in good temper and condition, 
and so insure the safety and good fortune of the 
capital, it must be fed. Therefore just across the 
river the government had planted and cultivated, 
with great care, a large grove of mulberry-trees. 
It may seem incredible, but it is nevertheless a 
fact. 

Well, there was, as I said, that summer, the 
cholera for one thing, and the whooping cough 
for another. The little Appletons began it, but 
no matter who, it went all round, and of course 
Harry had it. He never skipped any fun going, 
so his Amonni was in straits, for Harry not only 
didn't skip things, but what he did, he did with 
his might. He had whooping cough with all 
the trimmings, and was a pretty sick little boy ; 
for the worst of it was, the envious cough 
wouldn't let him keep food long enough to get 
any life to fight withal. "There go my ginger 
snaps," wailed Willie A., with a howl of anguish, 



Harry Has Whooping Cough 189 

and there went Harry's bread and butter, and 
beefsteak, too. What with that, and long con- 
vulsive fits of coughing every night when it 
almost seemed as if life itself would be shaken 
out of the little frame, the boy soon grew almost 
transparent enough to see through, and very 
languid and frail. 

However, the little ship weathered this storm 
too, the Master ever caring for it, and calming 
the winds and weaves. 

To keep the interest going they had a crazy 
man one summer, and a robber another. One 
always wants some great attraction to make a 
place popular, and if one cannot have a confer- 
ence or a midway, or a general assembly, or a 
merry-go-round, why one must be content for- 
sooth with such poor substitutes as crazy men 
and burglars. 

For the crazy man he seemed harmless enough, 
poor fellow, only that he made night hideous 
with his awful shrieks. That seemed to be his 
favourite time to wander abroad, and somewhere 
between twelve and the earliest dawn after every- 
body had fought the good fight with mosquitoes 
and sunk to blissful repose, they were startled 
wide awake by such cries as only the insane and 
sleep walkers can make, agonizing and terrify- 
ing. It was no matter that they had heard it be- 
fore, the women, at least never found that its 
horror lessened, and even the men didn't really 



190 At the River 

like it. But the poor creature did not confine his 
wanderings to the night hours. 

He had an uncanny way of suddenly appear- 
ing on the piazzas among the women and chil- 
dren, demanding food and money. He claimed 
to be a convert who had fallen from grace, and 
would beg Pastor Won to pray for him, or insist 
that Pastor Won and only he could cure his poor 
head. 

In Korea, as in other lands where the Gospel 
has only recently come, there are no hospitals or 
asylums for the sick, blind, insane, homeless, or 
orphans, except such as established by mission- 
aries, and supported by Western Christians. 
This man's family, poor farmers themselves, tried 
to guard and take care of him, but there are no 
rooms in their poor huts where such a subject 
could be securely confined. He therefore escaped 
them continually, wandering about a terror and 
nuisance to the whole vicinity, was daily stoned 
and beaten by heartless natives, whose goods he 
stole, or whose children he alarmed, and was ex- 
posed with scant clothing in all weather, to num- 
berless hardships. Mrs. Won used to think that 
if some of those who carp at missions could live 
in mission lands a few years, *' before and after " 
and see the pitiful condition of large classes of 
sufferers, without the institutions of Christianity, 
and later could see how gratefully those benefac- 
tions are received and adopted even by the un- 



Comes A Robber 191 

converted heathen, they might be convinced of 
their mistake. 

Then there was the robber. He, indeed, has 
passed into history ; he looms greater and more 
imposing every year. The older ones tell the 
tale, in hushed whispers, to the younger, who 
listen with delicious creeps, bated breath and up- 
rising hair. It is casually mentioned to young 
lady visitors like the ghastly legends of ancient 
houses to lend dignity to the estate, " a skeleton 
awaiting at the feast, whereby their sinful pleas- 
ure is increased." 

It began with the upper house, irreverendy 
called "the peanut gallery" because it stood on 
the crest of the hill, head, shoulders and more 
above the other two. At the Wons, the Captain 
was lying in a dead stupor with a terrible fever. 
Mrs. Won was watching, and Harry was lost in 
dreams. In the little cottage below were the na- 
tive servants. To Harry's Amonni, it all began 
with one piercing, blood-curdling shriek from the 
upper house, which tore the dead stillness of mid- 
night, and seemed to freeze the very air of 
August. Then awful silence as though the uni- 
verse had been murdered when that cry rang 
forth. The suspense was terrible ; Mrs. Won 
rushed out to the veranda, where she could dis- 
cern nothing but the servants, hurrying up the 
hill with a lantern. Soon, there were more 
screams, hurried calls, and signs that there were 



192 At the River 

at least some lively survivors still left in creation. 
What had really happened was, that a young 
lady visitor in the upper house had awakened to 
find a great, repulsive looking Korean, standing 
over her holding a horrible long knife, with which 
he threatened to cut her throat instantly, if she 
dared utter a sound. Upon which, with all a 
woman's recklessness of consequences, she 
shrieked the clarion like blast, which roused 
everybody. The wretch fled ; there was a game 
of hide and seek on the premises ; then while the 
pursuers were in the grounds, the burglar again 
invaded the house, and now threatened not only 
to murder everybody in it, but to burn them and 
it up together — inspired no doubt by a little vex- 
ation over the bother he was having — and pos- 
sessing himself of everything he could lay hands 
on, he speedily decamped to the tune of a chorus 
of screams from the women and children, hotly 
pursued by Mr. Markham and the servants. 
But he had slipped into the velvet blackness of 
the night and utterly disappeared. The whole 
neighbourhood, however, had learned a valuable 
lesson, namely that American women cannot be 
depended on to be quiet, when hushed with a 
knife or revolver, and that their nerves are a 
dangerous obstacle to the peaceful prosecution of 
burglary. 

Mrs. Won felt rather neglected when she 
found they were entirely left out, but excused it 



Come Blind Men 193 

on the ground that their house was two stories 
high, the lower entrances securely barred, and 
that they were known to have a shotgun on 
hand. 

An amusing incident occurred on one of the 
first nights of their occupancy of the house, which 
had led them to take some extra care. They 
were wakened in the middle of the night by soft 
footfalls on their lower veranda, and the sound of 
fingers tampering with the latches. The Captain 
jumped up quickly, and looking down, beheld a 
party of ten or twelve men on the lower veranda, 
quietly walking about, feeling and examining the 
windows and doors. They all carried long walk- 
ing sticks like blind men. ''Who are you?" 
cried he. " We are blind men," was the reply. 
"What are you doing down there?" "We 
have come for a ' kitgung ' (sight-seeing), your 
honour." "This is a strange noise for you to 
make that you come at midnight to see my house. 
What do you mean, what word is this you 
speak?" "Sir, we are blind, night is all one 
with us, as day ; we were passing and thought we 
would look and see." 

Now this was all very well ; and knowing the 
nocturnal habits of the blind sorcerers, it was not 
without some show of probability, but neverthe- 
less a feeling of suspicion remained, especially as 
these men themselves are a very disreputable 
class; so bidding them begone and henceforth 



194 At t^i^ River 

make their visits at seasonable hours, the master 
of the house looked well to the fastenings and 
guards. ; 

Nor was this all. There was a shrine far above 
them, in a lonely, wild place, where there was a 
little grove ; this, too, had an atmosphere of 
mystery and danger. Bad men were said to be 
often in hiding there and to come forth at night 
to rob the villages and wayfarers. One night 
Pastor Won, returning home after dark, met a 
man near there, who had been badly cut, and 
was covered with blood, and said he had been 
met by thieves, who had robbed him of his pack 
of merchandise. Besides, a servant, returning 
one evening from the city through the woods, 
with meat and other household supplies, came in 
empty handed, ghastly white, almost fainting, and 
declared he had been followed by a ghost, who 
nevertheless seemed to be rather a materialistic 
one, for he jumped on the man's back, knocked 
him down, and made off with the food. 

The natives believe very firmly in all sorts of 
ghosts, spirits and demons, and stand in abject 
terror of them all. They believe, too, that cer- 
tain houses and localities are haunted, and will 
not go near them after dark. Robbers take ad- 
vantage of this superstition to haunt these places 
themselves. They are usually very violent and 
murderous, because, if caught, severe torture 
and even death is the sure sentence. They have 



Peace At Last 195 

no mercy to hope for, and rather than risk the 
chance of escape, show none. They usually go 
in parties, armed with long knives and will ter- 
rorize whole villages, plundering the poor people 
of everything worth carrying away. 

After that summer the Wons and their neigh- 
bours were troubled no further, except by a few 
slight pilferings, and little by little, as the village 
people came to recognize them as friends and 
learned that instead of oppressors, they had 
found protectors, who helped mend their roads, 
bought their wood, eggs and chickens at good 
prices, gave medicine to their sick, respected 
their grave sites, and prevented the lawless from 
destroying their trees, they felt towards and 
treated the foreigners as neighbours, the fruit and 
vegetables unfenced, remained untouched, and 
the women and children^ undisturbed. So there 
was peace and good fellowship at the river. 




IX 

THE RAINY SEASON 

As has been already hinted in the previous 
chapter, Korean punishments are very violent, 
even for light offenses. Men are put in the 
stocks or terribly beaten with long, flat, wooden 
paddles, and decapitations and hangings often 
take place on short notice. Occasionally men 
are secretly murdered in prison when it is feared 
that intercession by powerful friends, or some- 
thing unforeseen might avail to thwart the ends 
of those concerned in getting rid of them. 

According to the old regime, police sent to 
make arrests, always expected to be paid by the 
unfortunate for decent treatment, higher officials 
at the jail in larger ratio, and finally, unless a 
crime arousing the unpurchasable hate of some 
great one was in question, a sufficient sum would 
generally secure a favourable sentence, or largely 
mitigate the severity of the punishment. 

The blind sorcerers and Buddhist priests, al- 
ready referred to, are both somewhat dangerous 
and suspected members of the community. The 
latter are forbidden the capital, and rank next to 
butchers, the lowest in the land. They belong to 
the mendicant "ne'er do weel" class, and are 

196 



Priests and Priestesses 197 

usually initiated, as friendless orphan children, 
into their profession, at the temples where they 
are received and fed, and in return are obliged to 
beg, and ply the arts of the ])riest, attending very 
likely to some rich man's shrine or grave site, or 
performing servile duties and helping in any 
way possible the little community of which they 
have become members. 

Both priests and priestesses wear their hair 
shaved, dress alike, and can hardly be distin- 
guished apart. There is much superstition in 
some very high quarters, and a great deal of 
money passes through their hands, but of any 
real religion or conscientious following of the 
plainest teachings of Buddha, much less any 
knowledge of his doctrines among the people, I 
have seen nothing. 

Ancestor worship, it appears to me, comes 
nearer being a religion in Korea than anything 
they have. However, trees, spirits and devils 
are all worshipped, sacrificed to and feared, and 
many conform to a large number of superstitious 
rites. When in hot water, out of which they de- 
sire to escape with speed, it is a matter of small 
concern who helps them, Satan, or the honour- 
able heaven ; to get out, and quickly, is the only 
object. 

The sorcerers are called in even more fre- 
quently than the priests, and they trade of course 
on the superstitions of the ignorant, to a fearful 



198 The Rainy Season 

extent. Blind children for whom there are of 
course no institutions of mercy, are almost inva- 
riably condemned to this life of dishonesty, chi- 
canery, trickery, begging and shame. Like the 
priests and dancing girls they are taught their 
profession from early childhood, Satan recogniz- 
ing full that it is best to begin early to mould a 
man in the shape he is to bear through eternity. 
The sorcerers go into trances, practice hypnotism 
and, I believe, telepathy, from what I have heard 
of their remarkable accomplishments. 

A few asylums for homeless and blind children 
would soon, to a large extent, break up these 
dens of iniquity and sources of danger to the 
public, and would result in the rescue of thou- 
sands of pitiful little waifs, both boys and girls, 
who fall into the clutches of these evil people, or 
are sold into slavery, worse than death, at the 
tenderest age, because there is no one to whom 
they belong, or who is able to protect them. 

If even in so-called Christian lands, thousands 
of children suffer in unnumbered ways, in a 
country where no institutions of mercy exist, the 
terrible condition of things can scarcely be over- 
stated, and there is hardly a coolie but can buy 
for a bag of rice some wretched little being as a 
slave. 

But to return to the river, and the Wons, after 
this rather long digression, in spite of the various 
exciting little episodes which lent spice to ex- 



In Swimming 199 

istence there, they were extremely happy in their 
river home. The pastor had one of his Korean 
literary helpers there, and at early daylight was 
at his literary work, the preparation of native 
Christian books, which went on vastly better in 
these quiet surroundings than amid the disturb- 
ances and interruptions of the city. About five 
o'clock in the afternoon, however, work stopped, 
and all adjourned to the river for a dip. The 
little fellows soon learned to swim like ducks, and 
looked forward all day to this as the sweetest 
promise of existence. Then tea was served on 
the bluff by one of the ladies, when all gathered 
together after the heat of the day and its busi- 
ness for a pleasant time together. One of the 
customs which they loved was the half hour 
prayer-meeting. Everybody dropped his work 
or play, came as they were, and united in song 
and prayer. It began when their hearts were 
heavy with anxiety for brothers in China, and 
proved such a blessing that it became an insti- 
tution. 

But when the rains began and kept on and on, 
for days and weeks, as they did some summers 
for ten weeks, with only the briefest of intermis- 
sions ; oh, then, there was no swimming, no tea 
on the bluff, no games among the trees, no cro- 
quet on the lawn, no anything, but trying to 
keep dry and to stop up leaks. Boots and shoes 
turned green and woolly with mould in a night, 



200 The Rainy Season 

garments mildewed almost while one was wear- 
ing them, bedding grew musty and wet, and the 
river, oh, the river ! From being a calm, beauti- 
ful, placid stream, it suddenly became a dark, 
muddy, evilly booming flood, which carried away 
branches of trees, broken rafts, and demolished 
houses. 

It spread over the plains where the mulberries 
stood to the feet of the hills beyond, and rose, 
little by little, till it crept into the Wons' lower 
garden, half drowning the blackberries, who 
found their best thorns of no avail to keep off 
this invader. On the other side, it flooded the 
valley between the Wons and the fairy road, so 
that the fishing smacks and ferryboats came well 
into view, and sometimes they had quite a fleet 
almost at their back door. 

The frogs croaked dismally, the wind wailed 
and howled among the trees, the sun was under 
a wet blanket for days, the mountains were 
veiled in mist, but oh, how green, how deliciously 
fresh and green, were the meadows and all the 
foliage, the leaves fairly shining in their contin- 
ual bath. And how things grew ! This was the 
time for setting slips, and transplanting bushes 
and trees. 

This was the time for reading delightful books, 
making up arrears of correspondence, getting 
fall sewing done, and this the time for the chil- 
dren to assemble on one of the well-sheltered 



Hard Going 201 

piazzas, and play games, read stories, practice 
on the trapeze and regulate stamp collections 
and scrap-books. 

The first bright day, out went all the garments 
and bedding on the upper veranda for a thor- 
ough airing and sunning, and then when an un- 
expected malicious cloud suddenly let down a 
sheet of water, there were racings and chasings, 
and a general scramble of the whole household 
to the rescue. If anybody ventured forth, how- 
ever, at that season he must go prepared for 
flooded roads, and terrible storms. Rubber 
boots and mackintoshes are very well for ordi- 
nary rains, but it is an extraordinary mackintosh 
which will long withstand such fierce downpours ; 
no boots are sufficient for such floods, and more 
than once had Mr. Won in his country trips been 
forced to wade to his neck through streams whose 
current was so strong he could only, with great 
difficulty, keep his feet. More than once drenched 
to the skin, his baggage soaked through, with- 
out a dry garment, he had sought for hours in 
vain for an inn. That is the time of year when 
the only news of the day is of leaks and floods. 
When in the black midnight watches, Mrs. Won 
lay awake listening half fascinated, half horrified, 
to the sullen roar of the river, the howls of the 
wind and the steady pounding of the rain, she 
heard a dull thud somewhere, that meant great 
lumps of ceiling were falling, or if it were merely 



202 The Rainy Season 

a cheerful little drip, drip, that was a new leak. 
Only hoping it wasn't on books or other dam- 
ageable property, the two would make their ex- 
plorations, lay bath towels, floor cloths, water 
proofs and sheets around door casings and win- 
dows, place all the kitchen utensils available 
under the leaks, and go back to their damp beds 
and clammy sheets for a short respite, until some 
fresh disaster called for the exercise of their 
sleepy energies. 

Korean roofs are tiled or thatched, in either 
case the fall must be steep to carry ol^ all the 
water in these terrific rains, and if the roof mend- 
ers, who are called in the spring are careless, if 
a tile or two is left broken, badly placed, or with- 
out enough overlap, sorrow is sure to follow in 
the rains. Or even when all has been well done, 
the wind often tears off large parts of the thatch, 
or loosens and displaces tiles. Water pours in 
around the casements, and in all sorts of un- 
imagined ways, finds jealous entrance if there 
remains a single dry place in creation. The 
whole atmosphere is so overloaded with moisture 
that one's lungs seem unable to inhale the proper 
quantity of ozone, and everybody is full of lassi- 
tude and weariness. 

The river was a never failing source of interest 
at this time. Great rafts of logs from the moun- 
tains in the interior, flashed past every day on 
their way to the port. Sometimes in the night 



The Ferries 203 

these would be torn from their moorings (for 
they were always floated inshore out of the cur- 
rent, and anchored for the night) on broken or 
submerged rocks, with the force of wind and 
current. Then the wreckers were abroad, and 
making night hideous with excited yells, would 
carry oE a rich harvest of timber. It was excit- 
ing, too, to watch the ferries. The wide, flat- 
bottomed, leaky boats, propelled and guided by 
two or three men who stood paddling at prow 
and stern, were loaded down almost to the 
water's edge with oxen, ponies, travelling chairs 
and jimkoons, all standing crowded together as 
closely as possible. 

To make the point desired on the opposite 
shore they must paddle up in the quiet water and 
get the back current on the Wons' side, a long 
distance above the landing ; then boldly striking 
across, still paddling up, fighting the current 
desperately, they whirled down and across and 
usually landed fairly near the point, opposite that 
from which they started. The river was no 
longer beautiful. It was brown with an ugly 
foam like a maddened beast of prey, and many 
a human life was sacrificed to its rage each year. 

Here are some paragraphs from Mrs. Won's 
diary written there one year. March 20, 19 — . 
I have been very ill and cannot yet walk alone 
across the room, but thinking the quiet, fresh air 
and sunshine down here would hasten recovery, 



204 The Rainy Season 

they brought me here yesterday. Early this 
morning I was wrapped in rugs and quilts, carried 
out to the lawn on my long cane chair, and set 
directly in the sun. How delicious the odours 
of spring ! The birds are so busy. I saw a red- 
breast, and heard a lark sing. The yellow 
forsythias are almost in bloom. 

March 25th. It was very sweet all day long 
in the sun, for when the shadows fall I am moved 
to a sunny place, so sometimes I face the river, 
sometimes the hills at the back so delightfully 
green with the tender shades of infant 
spring. 

April 15th. The canaries (as the Koreans call 
forsythias) have been in bloom some time and 
are gorgeous. There is a little arbour over the 
path leading down to the river garden which is 
covered with these golden blossoms. 

Sometimes I wonder as I lie out there all day 
in the heart of all that beauty, whether it is 
sweeter than under the warm sod, not shut away 
at all, but right near the very heart of all life, at 
the beginnings of everything, where God works 
in the dark out to the light. The dark that is so 
soothing and restful, and clasps one so tenderly 
and closely. There never can be any real dark- 
ness or death where He is. Only apart from 
Him is coldness, darkness and death. 

Sometimes the life in one shrinks and shudders 
away from the change that is called death, life 



In May-Time 205 

here is so inexpressibly full and sweet, yet one 
cannot live out in the resurrections of spring 
where ** every clod feels a stir of night," for 
weeks, and fear the brief season of gloom. 

There are the daintiest fleecy clouds, dancing 
over the daintiest blue sky, all reflected in the 
river, which lies asleep. There are new leaves 
shining, fairly laughing with delight to have got 
out at last, there is a gende whispering in the 
pines, there is the odour of balsam everywhere, 
and the apricots, bush cherries and many others 
are in full bloom. 

May 20th. All the fruit blossoms are out. 
The land is aglow with them, making patches of 
delicious colour in the hillsides and in the valleys. 
One can hardly bear the delight of it ; like the 
fairy coachman one feels one's heart bands burst- 
ing with joy. The white lilacs are making the 
whole garden sweet, and the first yellow roses 
are beginning their reign in a burst of glory. 
Harry is by the river all day, when not at 
lessons, which it seems a cruel mockery to im- 
pose. In the midst of all this, who could think 
of fractions, geography and grammar ; all nature 
doing her best to hypnotize him ? I believe we 
make our children study at too early an age, and 
too many hours. I have planned that Harry 
shall have an hour before breakfast, two between 
nine and eleven, and one between two and three, 
no more at all. It always seems to me that the 



2o6 The Rainy Season 

plea of the Lotus Eaters is a special plea for the 
children. 

" Lo in the middle of the wood 
The folded leaf is wooed from out the bud, 
With winds upon the branch, and there 
Grows green and broad and knows no care 
Sun steeped at noon and in the moon nightly dew fed. 
All things have rest, we only toil who are the first of things 
And make perpetual moan, 
Still from one labour to another thrown, 
Nor ever fold our wings, or steep our brows in slumber's holy 

balm 
Nor hearken what the inner spirit sings." 

June 20th. Chemulpo. 

I have been worse and now we are to take a 
little sea trip to Japan and Vladivostok. 

We came down here so easily and delightfully. 
They carried me down the hill to the river, and 
there was a picturesque boat with a quaint old 
boatman waiting on the sands. They placed me 
in it, reclining chair and all, and then we slid down 
the golden waters, tinted with sunset, sometimes 
between green fields and busy, noisy villages, 
sometimes between high rocks, covered with 
foliage and decked with moss. Sometimes we 
passed other craft, and the sailors peered curiously 
at our party and wondered if I were dead and 
being carried to some old family burial-place. 

When we reached the little steamer I was 
lifted on board and so came safely on. 

July 2d. We have had our trip to Vladivostok, 



At Vladivostok 207 

and are on our way back. I was too ill to go on 
shore there, but from the steamer it wears an un- 
gracious aspect, something like one of our raw 
western towns. The whole harbour is bristling 
in fortifications. There are no English hotels 
or boarding-places there (1897), and the com- 
mercial agents who came up with us, returned in 
dismay to the ship for meals, saying they could 
get nothing but black bread, black bean soup, 
raw ham and vodke at the Russian places/ 

We were proud and delighted to see American 
vessels lying in the harbour, with American rail- 
road iron, American nails, American flour. I 
wanted to shake hands with that flour. We 
were told that immense quantities of American 
goods are imported there. It was a new and 
decidedly pleasant experience, too, to see Amer- 
ican commercial travellers so far out there in the 
East. We are told that the climate is remark- 
ably dry and bracing. The atmosphere is clear 
as crystal. Still we were glad enough to get 
away. 

July 1 2th. We are home again, and, thank 
God, all well and happy and busy. 

No one who has a garden can live an idle life, 
and the Wons were kept busy, fighting enemies. 
The ants and the birds were their allies, but for 



' Since then it is the custom for officials to force passengers to go 
ashore and eat and sleep even though they stay only twenty-four 
hours. 



2o8 The Rainy Season 

the rest they all seemed bent on the destruction 
of everything beautiful or useful in nature. All 
sorts of vermin attacked the trees, and borers 
crawled into their hearts. When fruit ripened 
even the birds turned traitors and helped the 
great hornets to devour it. As for the grape- 
vines, from early spring till the last grape was 
bagged, it was one battle for existence. 

The roses, too, were attacked by aphides, 
caterpillars, and worst of all cruel rose beetles 
who waited till the bud was ready to burst into 
glowing beauty, and then relentlessly ate out its 
very heart. There was an old Korean installed 
as gardener, who had been for years according 
to his lights a faithful chair coolie, and now that 
he was too old for that, the Wons had given him 
a home in the cottage, and the duty of caring for 
their garden. But the garden after the fashion 
of such was exacting, and Kim was old and a 
little lazy, so a great deal of help was needed, 
and often the enemy got a long, long start. Kim 
was not a Christian ; he was too fond of his jug 
for that ; but he was an ardent upholder of the 
cause, distributed tracts on occasion, and advised 
the pastor that workers or teachers ought to be 
sent to this or that locality, ''since we have no 
believers there." He had been heard to recom- 
mend Christianity, too, very zealously to non- 
believers, and would no doubt have been an 
ardent church member, had it been com- 



Defending the Garden 209 

patible with chicken stealing and deep pota- 
tions. 

However, the Wons liked him for never pre- 
tending to believe for the sake of gaining favour, 
as I am sorry to say some servants do, and they 
greatly appreciated his real devotion to them and 
their interests. Like the cook he was regarded 
by all, himself included, as a member of the 
family, to be separated from them only by death. 

His wages in addition to his house and field, 
with wood from the place, were three dollars a 
month. With this rather unreliable assistant, the 
Wons carried on the war. They often wondered 
to what purpose all these evil creatures existed, 
and were strongly inclined to believe that since 
their only aim was destruction of that which was 
good, that they were of the devil, or at any rate 
like disease, the result of sin. Nevertheless they 
realized that God was using them to work out a 
greater good, teaching His people industry, forti- 
tude and patience. 

On one side of them, almost at their door, lay 
ten or twenty acres of pine woods, through which 
flowed a little brook, "which to the sleeping 
woods all night sang its gentle tune." 

Its banks were draped with ferns and wild 
flowers, and after the rains it danced and brawled 
along in a terribly noisy fashion. The Korean 
women used to come here with their washing, 
pounding it on stones in the crystal water, and 



210 The Rainy Season 

gossipping comfortably all the while. Here 
Harry Won and the little Appletons and the 
Markhams loved to play, wading in the water, 
building dams, sailing tiny boats, playing Indian 
and robbers among the trees, or house in some 
shady, ferny retreat. There are few harmful 
creatures in these woods for children to fear. 
Most of the snakes are innocuous (poisonous 
ones being extremely rare), and here and there 
at long intervals are seen one or two centipedes, 
otherwise I know of nothing worse than wasps 
and hornets. Poor Harry plunged a hapless little 
bare leg into a nest of these creatures one day, 
and had to run for his life, screaming lustily all 
the way, not escaping either, without severe 
punishment from the furious insects. One year 
when the family went to the river in July, they 
found the hornets had utilized the space between 
the parlour window and the outside wooden shut- 
ter for a hive. There from the inside they had a 
grand chance to peep into their nursery and see 
them feeding their babies and view all their private 
household afifairs. Afterwards the Koreans came 
at night with torches and boldly tore down the 
shutter, the blinded and crazed insects flying 
directly into the blaze and destruction. 

In another direction more than a mile away, 
was a far wilder, and correspondingly more 
delightful place. Here were great, silent, stately 
pine woods, high hills on either side, great rocks 



The Picnic Place 2 1 I 

and boulders, and a larger and far more beautiful 
stream, running on over the most tempting golden 
sands. The trees threw their shadows across it, 
and little flecks of light caressed its bosom, like 
jewels on the neck of a fair girl. In places, before 
some barrier, it lay in cool, deep pools, where a 
man could stand waist deep, and thence it poured, 
over the mossy stones, with the most delightful 
sound in the world to the ears of a child on a 
summer day. 

This was the favourite spot for picnics, but the 
time was always too short, alas ! for as has often 
been said, time is such a contrary old cur- 
mudgeon, he always hurries most when you 
want him to dawdle ; but if you have a tooth- 
ache, dawdle isn't the word ; for it is my belief he 
stands stock still at all such times. 

When the rains were over, was the time for 
picnics, and when the rains were over, if they 
didn't stay too long, came Harry's birthday ; 
when the rains were over, the red peppers began 
to blaze in great scarlet patches on the house- 
tops ; when the rains were over, came the August 
lilies. The Wons had masses of them every- 
where in their garden. 

They belong to the moon, you know, and 
stand all night offering incense at her altar. In 
the morning they close their pure petals and 
retire from the free gaze of the bold sun. 

I believe nothing could be more beautiful than 



212 The Rainy Season 

those nights at The Firs when the moon and the 
lilies were together. Below, lay the river more 
lovely than ever, enchanted by her goddess into 
a sheet of silver ; beyond, were the hills and 
mountains, here in soft but exquisite radiance, 
there in mysterious shadows. Around the house 
lay the garden, hushed, perfumed, its beauty en- 
hanced by the soft light that revealed only what 
was charming and left in kind obscurity, all that 
was defacing and unlovely. And the lilies, oh, 
the lilies ! shining in so dazzling a whiteness, that 
in contrast with the gloom, they were fairly 
radiant, ''as no fuller on earth can white them." 

We never could look long, without turning 
away a moment to catch our breath. 

*' And to think He made it all to please us ! " 

'' If this, so defaced by aeons of sin, and the 
curse of evil, is so glorious, what will be the 
* place* He has gone to prepare ? " 

** Sure we must be immortal to bear more 
beauty than this," were the thoughts that welled 
up in our minds. The place seemed a lofty 
sanctuary, and what was fitting but to praise and 
adore the Almighty Creator ? 

Sometimes, tempted by the children, they 
would leave the lilies and the garden, and take a 
Korean sailboat up the river on these glorious 
nights ; everybody went, the very littlest were not 
refused, and a basket of refreshments in some 
form was the necessary concomitant, of course, gay 



Saying Good-Bye 213 

songs floated out on the air, and everybody voted 
it a fine time. Yet when they were safely back 
on the quiet veranda, under the quiet sky, with 
the incense breathing Ulies around them, they 
looked at each other in wonder and said, ** Why 
did we go away, how could we do it?" No 
one could answer, the problem remained un- 
solved. 

When the bright, dry, sweet September days 
were fully on, they knew they must say good- 
bye to the river, and go back to the dirty city, 
and clean house in preparation for the annual 
meeting of the mission. O how hard it was to 
say good-bye. Harry often longed to lie down 
on dear mother earth's bosom and kiss his fare- 
wells. He was (no wonder) born sentimental, 
and never could love moderately, calmly and 
sedately. 

The last fond adieu had to be said to every- 
thing, last of all down among the rocks at the 
river, rapt in the glow, the purple veil, the still- 
ness, all that were God's signals and His voices, 
and then back to a stern fight with sin, deceit, 
disease and the devil, for ten long, strenuous 
months. They had all played and rested quite 
long enough, and sad though their farewells to 
the river, eagerly they returned to the work, 
and dear as the joys that nature's beauty brings, 
there are dearer and higher, far nobler and more 
inspiring, in opening the light of truth into the 



214 



The Rainy Season 



dark, sad places. At least the elders thought so ; 
but as for Harry he regretted the river all winter, 
till it was time to begin to anticipate it for next 
summer. 



i 



BOY HUSBANDS 

Soon after they returned to the city after that 
first summer, there was great excitement and 
commotion in the poor little country called 
Morning Calm. 

Terrible things happened. The queen was 
killed, and all her friends fled away, frightened, 
as well they might be, except the king, who was 
kept a prisoner by the party in power ; for in 
Korean politics, to hold the king is something 
like holding the queen in a game of chess, only 
even more important. There was much going 
back and forth to the palace of foreign ministers, 
and of missionaries, who were sometimes asked 
to interpret, and sometimes to w^atch with His 
Majesty at night, for he was in the power of 
cruel and treacherous men, and knew not what 
might be done. So the Captain, who was just 
as ready and glad to help a king, as any one 
else, in any humble way in his power, was go- 
ing or coming in one or other of these capac- 
ities pretty often. 

There were insurrections and riots, and upris- 
ings in the country, for nobody liked the bad 
government, and unruly people took advantage 

215 



2i6 Boy Husbands 

of it all, to make things as bad as possible every- 
where. By and by, after matters had gone on 
from bad to worse for many months, the king 
escaped to the Russian Legation, and then for a 
little while there was still more trouble, for old 
scores had to be paid, and the angry people 
wanted at once to wreak vengeance on the bad 
rulers, and proclaim their loyalty to the king. 
So there were more furious mobs, more trials 
and executions, more runnings away of people 
who belonged to the wrong party. It was a 
pitiful condition of things. More pitiful still was 
the state of the poor country folks, who were op- 
pressed and robbed by every party, and insur- 
rectionists too, with no peace or safety in this 
world, or hope in the world to come. But 
through all the turmoil, the Wons were perfectly 
safe under the protection of God who had further 
use for them. The folds of dear Old Glory 
waved majestically above them, and had a good 
deal to do with their safety too, in a secondary 
way. I can assure you that American boys in 
the far East realize very fully what it means to 
be an American, in very many ways, and every 
day of their lives, as boys who never have left 
home cannot possibly do. First of all they see 
the contrast between their own country and these 
eastern ones, in freedom, wise laws, just, strong 
government, comfort and luxuries of life, protec- 
tion from diseases which are exceptional in 



An Expatriated Boy 217 

America, are here great epidemics, slaying their 
thousands, and the blessings of inspiring re- 
Hgion and enhghtening education, compared 
with the ignorance and hopelessness of the 
East. 

Then they realize as at home they never can, 
the power and dignity of that government whose 
long arm reaches round the world and guards 
its children, that government which other nations 
fear, admire and respect. 

And do you think they don't love her because 
they were not born on her soil ? Better not tell 
them so. Of the soil, one with every child born 
there of American parents, they love it, I verily 
beHeve, more fondly, more proudly, with a more 
enlightened mind as to wherefore, and with more 
wherefore, than most boys at home. 

If you could have seen how Harry adored his 
flag, how he kept the Fourth of July, how he 
pored over the history of his country, how, be- 
fore he was twelve years old, he had gone 
through a primary United States school history 
twice, and advanced one thrice, another by a 
different author twice. Abbot's ''Lives of the 
Presidents" thrice, "The Blue Jackets of 181 2 " 
and " Boys of '76 " each at least three times, and 
I know not what host of other historical stories ; 
if you had seen his scrap-book full of Spanish 
War notes and pictures, if you had questioned 
him and found how perfectly he knew every 



2i8 Boy Husbands 

warship, cruiser, gunboat and what not in the 
navy, past and present, and how well he was in- 
formed as to the feats of every great general and 
admiral, you would have seen that an American 
boy in the far East was no less a patriot for 
that, and I can assure you that Harry's patriot- 
ism was only a sample of what hundreds of other 
American boys, similarly situated, feel. Yet 
nearly every stranger who meets these boys on 
their own shores, when it is discovered they have 
been born abroad, at once taunts them with the 
slur, " Then you never can be president." 
This is thoughtless, unkind and untrue. Not 
that most of them aspire to that high honour, 
but it is casting a slight on their nationality, and 
the perfect character of their citizenship, and it is 
untrue, because a special law provides for and 
guards the rights and privileges of the sons of 
American foreign ministers, missionaries and 
others, who are residing for an indefinite time in 
foreign lands. 

Master Harry claimed seven Revolutionary 
soldiers as direct ancestors, and counted back 
among the New York Hollanders on one side, 
and the New England Puritans on the other, to 
the Mayflower and the first settlement of the 
country, and so it caused a throb of indignation 
at his youthful heart to have either his patriotism 
or his citizenship impeached. 

When state affairs had quieted, and the 



The Boy and the Emperor 219 

emperor was again in his own palace, and his 
mind at ease, he used often to send for Harry's 
papa, as a friend tried and trusted, and on one 
or two occasions asked that the boy might be 
brought also. 

Once (Harry was not yet six please remember 
in excuse) when the emperor, as he had now be- 
come, with great condescension rose to greet 
the missionary, and stood a moment with him, 
the thoughtless little youngster ran and climbed 
into the throne ! His horrified father snatched 
him o£E in great shame, but the emperor, who is 
all kindness, gentleness and generosity towards 
his friends, would not allow the naughty fellow 
to yield the chair, but stooped down before him, 
petting, comforting and chatting with him for 
some moments. He was too young to realize 
how much this meant to Koreans ; but as he 
grew older he used to say, with a laugh, that 
though he could never be president, according 
to some folk, he at least had occupied a throne. 

This behaviour, which was really only igno- 
rance and innocence, was more than equalled by 
the nine year old boy of another American, who 
on the occasion of being at the palace through 
invitation, was asked his age by the crown 
prince. Now as I have said before, the endings 
of Korean verbs are all important, and not only 
special endings must be used for royalty and 
people far above one, but entirely different words. 



220 Boy Husbands 

For instance one would ask a small child or a 
person greatly inferior, his age, by the words, 
'' met sal inya ? " to one barely an equal we 
would say, ''nahi metchio?" and to one still 
higher they would say, "Younsay Elmasio?" 
But a child should never ask a prince his age at 
all, nor would most Americans of mature years 
presume so far. But when the crown prince 
asked this boy his age, he replied with guileless 
simplicity, "Nine. How old are you?" using 
*' met sal inya ! " 

A dead silence followed. When the boy told 
his mother, she asked him all aghast what the 
prince did. *' O he just turned round and 
walked away, and never told me," was the 
reply. 

Little did he realize that it was due to Old 
Glory in part, as a result of the kindness and 
good feeling of the royal family for Americans, 
for that boy's father in particular, and in part 
their fondness, and forbearance towards all chil- 
dren, that the young man was not consumed on 
the spot. 

Harry was invited to the palace on many oc- 
casions, but never repeated such mortifying 
pranks, learning, as he grew older, to prize 
highly the condescension shown him and the 
kind friendship of the emperor. Sometimes 
they were invited to skate on the royal lotus 
pond, and sometimes permitted to picnic in the 








M. 



KOREAN THRONE. 



il 



On Account of Old Glory 221 

beautiful royal park ; sometimes tableaus and 
mimes, centuries old, were enacted for the bene- 
fit of one or other of these American children, at 
royal audiences. 

Harry, however, was far prouder of a military 
salute bestowed on his mamma and himself than 
of all the royal audiences. One day when they 
were returning from a distant part of the town 
in a sedan chair, they found that every avenue 
leading into their street which was also that of 
the new palace, was closed by close ranks of 
royal guards, to the number of several hundreds. 
His Majesty was expected forth in a few mo- 
ments, special earth had been scattered along 
the road, no profane foot must tread there, no 
other chair or person must be permitted in the 
way. 

But it was late, the king might delay long; 
scarcely hoping to be heard, they begged to be 
permitted to proceed, promising to hurry and 
be out of the way before the royal party should 
appear. Very graciously the ofBcer on guard 
consented, all on account of Old Glory, and the 
coolies fairly ran along the road, between the 
long lines of soldiers, all, officers and men, salut- 
ing in proper military fashion as they passed. 
All this ceremony for them was, to Harry, the 
most signal honour of his life. It was a proud 
day for the martially inclined little American. 

Although Harry had a very delightful little 



222 Boy Husbands 

company of American, Canadian and English 
playfellows, he had his Korean friends, too, and 
among the schoolboys was one whom in his early 
years, before he could yet pronounce plainly, he 
called his brozher (brother), and whom the rest 
of us called " the little married man." 

Though twelve years old, he was not taller 
than most boys in America of seven or eight, 
but his hair was put up in a tight knot on top of 
his head, the short hairs all neatly bound in a 
mangam. 

He had not then yet donned the black hat like 
all married men, but a great wide, heavy straw 
one, which shielded his face. He wore, too, a 
coat of grass cloth, with a rope around his waist, 
for little married man had lost his father, when 
the cholera raged so terribly the previous sum- 
mer, and he was in mourning. 

This boy's father had been a Christian, a man 
of gentlemanly birth, a teacher and literary 
helper of Harry's father and an assistant in 
translating religious literature into Korean. 

When the cholera struck him down so sud- 
denly, he left a widow, this one boy and a little 
daughter. 

So now poor '' married man " had become the 
head of the family, in name, though I have a 
conviction that his Amonni was the real man in 
resourcefulness, energy and ability to manage, 
and was so even before her husband's death. 



Little "Married Man" 223 

Many a Korean woman does that, however, and 
they are all quite used to it. 

When his helper died, Harry's papa promised 
to be a father to the little man, so far as he 
could, so he had placed him in a mission school, 
and nearly every day he came to visit Harry. 

The latter had learned only a very little Korean 
and though they understood very little of each 
other's words they got on finely and compre- 
hended each other's meaning quite well. 

But what a difference there was between them. 
What an amount of matters that were every-day 
afTairs to Harry, which married man never 
dreamed of, and on the other hand, what an old 
man, ages old, was the Korean compared with 
the little American ; his head crammed full of all 
sorts of queer and foolish superstitions and fables, 
hundreds of Chinese characters, and knowledge 
of matters far beyond his years. Both born in 
Korea, but one in the sunlight, and constantly 
growing, unfolding, reaching up more and more 
in it, the other in a dark and musty place, con- 
fined, shut in, away from the soul's sweet light 
and air, so that his eyes were blind and his nature 
narrow, shallow and weak. 

Some time before his father died he had been 
married with ceremonies which to Americans are 
quite unique. 

Of course weddings in Korea dififer according 
to the class and means of the parties as much as 



224 Boy Husbands 

anywhere else, and some of the poorest and low- 
est just announce their decision to be husband 
and wife, to their acquaintances in a general way, 
without any ceremony, except that the husband's 
family must likely pay a few bags of rice for the 
girl. 

But Mr. Yi's family were well to do, with an 
income of at least five hundred yen a year (for 
Mrs. Yi supplemented her husband's salary), so 
there was quite a wedding. 

First of all, for some time before, the family 
had been getting the feast ready, and friends and 
neighbours came in to help, and had bread making 
bees, and sewing bees. Loaves and loaves of 
dock were made, enough to fill a small room, and 
were locked up in waiting for the occasion. 
Many pounds of vermicelli were manufactured 
on the spot with the aid of an old clumsy look- 
ing machine, and chickens, eggs, nuts, fruit and 
various fancy dishes arranged for. The bride- 
groom, of course, and all the family, too, were 
provided with fine new clothes. 

At the bride's house they had been busy for 
weeks getting her trousseau ready. For the 
wedding day there was a long red skirt made of 
the soft thin native silk, and a yellow silk jacket. 
A woman whose business it is to arrange for 
weddings, a regular go-between, had settled the 
contract between the two families, and all the 
arrangements for the wedding. If people are 



The Bridal Attire 22 J 

too poor to have their own things, she rents them 
the necessary ornaments, the bride's chair, the 
man's pony and court dress, and everything, in 
short, that is needed. 

On this occasion ever and ever so many large, 
showy, and to our minds, absurd hairpins and 
girdle ornaments were worn. The bride's hair 
was oiled till it shone, parted and combed back 
as tightly as possible, and was shaved a little 
around the forehead to make a perfectly regular 
outline. Her eyebrows, too, were shaved to the 
finest line possible, and her face covered thickly 
with a white paste which, when dry, gave her a 
corpse-like pallour ghastly to behold, which was 
rather enhanced than otherwise, by the vermilion, 
thickly daubed on her lips and also on each 
cheek, in a spot about the size of a silver quarter. 
It is bad form for the hands to be seen and they 
were covered with a piece of white silk draped 
over them as she held them clasped in front of 
her. 

Either on the day of the wedding or one day 
before, servants are usually sent to the bride's 
future home with her trousseau. When the time 
for the ceremony was at hand, the bridegroom 
who had hired for the occasion a court dress and 
hat (such as only high officials wear at royal 
audiences), mounted a pony with a queer, high, 
old-fashioned saddle, accompanied by two men 
in livery, one either side to hold him on his 



226 Boy Husbands 

uncertain seat ; a mapo or groom went before 
leading the pony, and another attendant followed 
carrying a gigantic umbrella on a long pole, to 
shade the hero from the too fervent admiration 
of the sun. Still others ran behind, constantly 
repeating the cry " keroot-cheeroo^^ which is to 
signify to all that this is a very great man and 
every one must respectfully step aside. He was 
on his way to bring home his wife. 

Upon his arrival, she entered a native carrying- 
chair, the finest and best that could be hired or 
borrowed, and over it was thrown a leopard 
skin. 

The chair was of course taken to the house, 
and she entered it unseen. The procession then 
proceeded to her new home. First of all walked 
a man carrying a live goose, all tied up with 
ribbands to insure long life and wedded bliss, 
then servants carrying boxes of clothing and 
food. Very often there are women servants in 
these processions with enormous masses of false 
hair, and sometimes there are little flower girls 
and boys carrying huge bouquets bigger than 
themselves of home-made paper flowers. I can- 
not aver they were present at this wedding, how- 
ever. The bridegroom followed next and last of 
all the chair with the bride. 

When they arrived at home, the bride had to 
be helped, almost lifted from it, partly because it 
is absolutely essential to good form that she 



The Wedding Ceremony 227 

shall be quite as inanimate, and as nearly like a 
dead woman as she looks, and partly because her 
skirts are so extremely long all round, her hands 
so hampered, and her eyes so tightly closed that 
she is absolutely helpless. Two women, near 
relatives, grasped her arms, and moved her 
along, step by step, to the centre of the room. 
Opposite stood the bridegroom with a friend. 
The girl's inert little figure was slightly bent for- 
ward by her attendants, making a low obeisance 
several times ; then the bridegroom returned the 
compliment, a cup of wine was then placed to the 
lips of each, first to the groom, then the bride. 
She, however, tasted nothing but terror and 
confusion, for this is an awful ordeal for a Korean 
child-wife, who has been secluded closely for 
years. The couple then bowed, touching their 
foreheads to the ground before his parents, and 
after before hers if they were present, though 
quite often the bride's mother, at least, is not. 

A couple of the little low Korean tables piled 
high with Korean dainties were then brought in, 
for the newly married pair. 

After this ceremony is performed and the bride 
has retired for a little, the rest of the company 
are fed with all that nature will admit, and it is 
miraculous what nature can do at times under 
stress of circumstances. 

There is no doubt that Koreans, like the rest 
of us, consider this the great gala day, the 



228 Boy Husbands 

crowning- occasion of a man or woman's life. 
For him, from the putting up of the hair, dates 
his Hfe as a man among men. Old things are 
put away, all things are become new. His name 
is changed, he has assumed manly dignity and 
responsibility. 

As for the girl, as she immediately after sub- 
sides into maid of all work, and is not supposed 
to be seen or heard of outside the family again, 
it is certainly the one occasion when she is of 
importance and brought into notice. Like the 
night blooming cereus, she blooms out in glory 
only for a single day ; towards this all her pre- 
vious life has been tending, back to it in all her 
future days will memory turn. 

So no wonder that for once the boy is allowed 
to wear palace robes and go like a prince for his 
bride, and no wonder she is decked out in all 
that can be had. 

The little wife is not expected to speak at all. 
It is a queer notion of these strange people, that 
it is more modest, womanly, and altogether de- 
sirable that a woman should be silent. This 
notion is carried so far, that it is really next to 
impossible to induce a girl to answer or speak a 
word in the presence of a stranger or superior. 

Young brides sometimes never utter a word 
for months after their marriage. What little 
married man's wife would have thought, if she 
could have been made to comprehend, which I 



The Fate of Brides 229 

doubt, what the new woman is, or if she could 
have gone to America and attended a women's 
rights convention, or if she had been informed 
how some young women of the western world 
comport themselves in public, I do not pretend 
to guess. 

For her part she was learning early to get ac- 
customed to her mother-in-law, and because she 
began early, she would learn it well. She would 
soon come to love her and be a real daughter 
instead of a foreign factor in the home. And 
there is no small advantage in all this, either. 
Think of it, young American matron, no Korean 
husband can tell his wife, with implied regret and 
reproach, how his mother used to cook this or 
that, for she knows it all, and his mother's ways 
will be the wife's, so that to the end of his life he 
shall eat the same sodden pies, heavy biscuit and 
other indigestibles, exactly as he ate them when 
a boy. 

This little wife, however, claims no rights ; she 
is there as a busy little helper with her hands and 
her needle, and when many years hence she may 
be blessed some day with woman's chief and 
crowning glory, a child of her own, she will step 
up in her little world, and begin to be a person 
of importance. 

It is not all bad, this woman's life in Koiea, 
though its abuses are many. It is hard for a 
little girl to leave her mother's side, to be totally, 



230 Boy Husbands 

irremediably under the heavy hand of a mother- 
in-law, yet many a western girl goes to boarding 
school no older ; the mother-in-law is sometimes 
severe and cruel, but not commonly ; the girl is 
terribly shut in, but I wonder if that is worse than 
the unshielded, unguided publicity of the lives of 
many of our girls. 

The ignorance, the narrowness, the supersti- 
tion alas are unmitigated and terrible. 

''Where no vision is the people die," and to 
the Korean girl wife there is no vision, no future, 
no life above the animal, no hope in this world 
for aught but what the animals share in common 
with men, warmth, food, offspring, shelter. This 
is where the yoke is hard and the burden heavy. 
No inspiration, no vision, no God who loves and 
pities them, who has stooped to share their bur- 
dens, who offers peace, rest and glory beyond. 
For this the smooth young faces are early 
seamed, coarsened, hardened and furrowed. 

Litde married man's wife, however, had no 
notion of the weary road before her yet. She 
was just a dear, pretty child, with a soft, sweet, 
oval face, red lips, gentle, dark eyes, and a 
smooth, clear, olive skin that any Asiatic would 
call very pretty indeed. She was treated like a 
daughter and sister, and soon came to feel she 
was one. Sometimes, once in two or three 
months, perhaps, she went home to visit her 
mother, after dark, with her apron all over her 



Bad News 231 

face and her mother-in-law or an old woman 
servant by her side. Harry's Amonni went to 
see them all, and came home full of praises for 
the two pretty little girls. Poor Harry listened 
sadly ; to him it was a strange, sad dispensation 
of Providence that he had no real brothers or 
sisters or wives or anything, while others were so 
well suppliedo Some time after, when very sick, 
he talked out in the delirium of fever, some of 
the troubles that worried his little brain, and was 
heard to say in pathetic accents, '* My brozher 
has a wisch (wife) and a shister, but I hazh no 
one but myselch." 

One winter when Harry wasn't quite seven 
years old, came a terrible letter from America. 
Everybody in the East knows what such letters 
are. Agony and loss stare from every line. 
The dearest are smitten, or have gone, and all so 
far, far off beyond those thousands of intermi- 
nable miles, over which only bad news can travel 
fast enough. 

Mamma was sorely needed by those who had 
a sacred claim upon her, and her heart was al- 
most bursting with an agony of desire to go to 
them, " but of course it was impossible." Little 
by little, as they thought and prayed and con- 
sulted with Christian friends, the impossibilities 
began to disappear. She might go, but it must 
be alone. Often it happens thus in people's 
lives that both duty and desire pull apparently 



232 Boy Husbands 

equally hard in opposite directions. Those who 
have experienced that conflict over some matter 
of life and death like this one, only, can guess 
how torn was the heart of Mrs. Won. 

To be of any use, she must go quickly ; at 
once. But at once she could not bring her mind 
to such a parting, so she went on, blindly pre- 
paring, *' 171 case I should go." " In case,^' trunks 
were packed and locked, tickets to Chemulpo 
bought, and household affairs settled for several 
months' absence ; but Harry's Amonni had not 
yet decided to go ; oh, no indeed. Her heart was 
a great deal heavier than lead, so heavy she 
could scarcely carry it round, what with the 
weight of the letter, and the weight of leaving the 
Captain and Harry, I don't see how she could 
carry it at all. Heavier and heavier, each mo- 
ment the weight increased, and oh, how time 
flew ! At last the coolies stood at the door, and 
they all went down to Chemulpo " in case^^ she 
should at length conclude to go. It was a wild- 
eyed, haggard woman who walked into the 
Chinese hotel at Chemulpo. " Why Missis Won ! 
how old and sick you look," said the old steward 
who knew her well. But she hadn't decided to 
go yet, oh, no. At length they told her the 
steamer was in the bay and would sail in the 
morning; tickets must be bought. Oh, how 
heavy, how fearfully heavy grew that sickening 
weight, as she paced back and forth, trying to see 



Separation 233 

her duty, wondering whether it was not a warped 
vision of duty to leave the husband and young 
child for months in a country where so many 
dangers threatened. 

Pastor Won had mission business in Fusan, 
and he and Harry were going there, anyway, so 
they all sailed together from Chemulpo, ** in 
case^^ Mrs. Won should fully decide at Fusan to 
go to America. 

Alas, it only took thirty brief hours to reach 
Fusan, and then ! Then she knew, as she had 
known all along, that she was going to cross the 
Pacific, and the North American continent, leav- 
ing her husband and little delicate child on the 
other side. She stood and saw the little boat con- 
taining the two who were as her own soul put off 
for shore, and it was like rending asunder soul 
and body. It seemed monstrous and impossible 
that she should be whirling away further and fur- 
ther, leaving a widening gulf of black waters, be- 
tween them and her, who had never been parted. 
Many a gay mother, who thinks nothing of leav- 
ing her children, while she flits to Europe for a 
pleasure trip, will smile at this tale of over- 
strained and exaggerated emotion, for a mere 
separation of a few months. But Harry's 
x-^monni had only that one lamb, and living in 
that far-off heathen land, perhaps one cause ; the 
little family had ever been as one heart, one soul, 
and seemed bound together in a peculiar w^ay. 



234 Boy Husbands 

The dangers from terrible disease were many, 
and, well, probably the principal reason was that 
Mrs. Won was a very foolish woman, which I 
have never denied. 

Now as she strained to see through her tears, 
she beheld the little fellow put his head on his 
father's shoulder and sob ; she saw the father 
stoop and whisper something, she guessed well 
enough what, for up came the brave little head, a 
laugh broke through the tears, and gaily rang out 
the good-byes that would tremble, and furiously 
waved the little handkerchief heavy with tears. 
Mamma must not see him cry, it would make it 
harder for her, and so as long as mamma could 
see, the two smiling faces were looking back, and 
handkerchiefs waving ; at last those two, and the 
boat could be distinguished no more, just a 
dreary waste of cold, dark, sobbing waters, and a 
dreary, desolate promontory. Was that a hand- 
kerchief fluttering up there, or only a sea bird ? 
Then the promontory, too, faded away in mist 
and night — very dark night — and the cruel 
steamer was hurrying her body along, far, far 
from the shore that kept her heart. 

Poor Harry burst into violent sobs when it was 
no longer necessary to cheer mamma, and 
though kind friends were very kind, and though 
he had many happy hours in play with his litde 
friends, he suffered much. Often they would 
find the little fellow hidden behind the door, or 



A Part of the Price 235 

under some table with its screening cover silently 
crying with loneliness for mother. 

The mail, to be sure, brought a rapid succes- 
sion of letters and little gifts, pictures of ships, 
pasteboard soldiers, valentines, Easter cards, and 
pressed flowers. All well enough, but not mother. 

One day on the first of April, the children 
brought him a letter which they said was from 
her ; how his little heart leaped, but it was only a 
cruel April fool. That was very bitter and be- 
sides his father was away off in the country, preach- 
ing. Harry had to have the measles too, of 
course, and altogether it was a long, dark, dreary 
time in the child's experience. 

But after a while mother came back, and they 
prayed they need never be parted like that in 
this world again. But it is not an exceptional 
experience with missionaries. Families must be 
divided, and tender little ones must be torn from 
the mother's arms, just a part of the price. 

What a host of things Harry's Amonni brought 
back with her ! A great packing case, besides a 
whole trunkful that grandparents, tender aunts, 
cousins and friends had sent to comfort him. 
Clothes, books, toys, everything they could think 
of. But " a man's life consisteth not in the abun- 
dance of the things that he possesseth," and 
Harry's joy was that they were all together once 
more in the home. 



XI 

TO JAPAN AND CHINA 

Many people were very sick one year, 
for new streets were being made in the city, 
and old ones widened, the Koreans having 
imbibed a spirit of " kaiwha," hundreds of 
native houses were pulled down, the accu- 
mulations of centuries of disease and filth were 
turned over, and stirred up, and the atmosphere 
was full of poisonous dust, so that people who 
didn't have a fever of some kind were not in 
the fashion. 

The Captain and little son were both in it very 
deep. That was how it happened that the mis- 
sion voted the Wons should take a trip to Japan 
or China, and find some place where they could 
quickly gain the strength for the work that was 
so pressing. 

They started with a party of missionaries re- 
turning from the annual meeting in Seoul to 
their homes in southern Korea, or to Inchun to 
take the steamer to the North. 

The little boat on its way down the river was 
packed, I can tell you. The more the merrier, 

236 



I 



A Mismanaged Hotel 237 

they say, but especially so when it is a crowd of 
missionaries, than whom a merrier lot of people 
it would be hard to find, people who do not 
know them to the contrary notwithstanding. 

They are blue? Yes, of course, but that is a 
heavenly colour, you know, and haven't you 
seen laughing skies? If not I'm afraid it is 
because you cannot see. 

At Inchun they were all huddled together in 
one wretched hotel, kept well — not by West- 
erners. It was the second best, where the best, 
which was full, was not by any means all that 
could be desired. The manager (perhaps better 
say keeper) was apparently so demoralized at 
having such an unheard-of number of guests, 
and all calling for fires, baths, drinking water, 
tea, towels, soap or something equally unheard 
of and absurd at once, that he lost his wits com- 
pletely and never hunted them up again. Hours 
after supper time no signs of supper being forth- 
coming for the hungry crowd, and the children 
who were getting momently sleepier as well as 
more hungry, being in a state of mind which 
boded no good to any one, two of the mission- 
aries invaded the dirty kitchen and took charge. 
Supper, after a fashion, was the result. To be 
sure there were not enough knives and forks, 
and a table boy was caught washing some in a 
bucket of muddy mop water in the hall, but these 
were mere incidentals, and next morning saw 



238 To Japan and China 

our friends bidding a glad farewell to the hotel, 
and starting on their various routes for Pyeng 
Yang, Fusan, Taiku and Japan. Arriving at 
Nagasaki, on making inquiries of friends there, 
they learned that at a comparatively short dis- 
tance across the bay, there was a seashore vil- 
lage called Obama, and that in the mountains 
above, was a famous group of sulphur springs, 
the favourite resort of many foreigners from both 
Japan and China, as well as of the native Japa- 
nese. Hither the party determined to go, breathe 
the bracing mountain air, and try the famous 
waters. The first stage of their journey was in 
jinrikishas, from Nagasaki over the hills, and 
through a mountain pass to a little fishing vil- 
lage called Moki, where the steamer was to be 
had which was to take them across the bay. 

How I wish all my readers could see and 
enjoy all that our people saw in that ride. To 
attempt to describe it all would be folly, and yet 
what a vision ! First of all, with a great rattling 
over the stony thoroughfares of the city, past 
gay little shops, full of the most tempting things, 
in carved ivory, tortoise shell, silk embroideries, 
porcelain, crepes, rugs, etc., gay little children in 
the most charming colours, picturesque coolies, 
carrying flowers, vegetables, or other wares, on 
and on, till the road begins to ascend, when one 
hires a pusher, or gets out and walks. Up, up 
it winds, the hills all around cultivated to the 



A Road in Japan 239 

very top, while the mountains lay smiling in 
melting tints of blue. At the point where de- 
scent begins, one looks down on the one side 
upon the busy city, with its harbour full of the 
shipping of the world passing through the straits 
of Shiminisaki to the beautiful Inland Sea, and 
on the other upon as lovely a valley as the eye 
would care to rest upon. 

The road winds down through bamboo groves, 
into the heart of the beautiful hills, overtopped 
by more beautiful mountains which stood re- 
splendent in the glorious October sunshine and 
the soft misty atmosphere. A charming brook 
crosses the road continually, and is bordered 
with a wealth of ferns, bewitching to a lover of 
plants. Something over two hours' ride, drawn 
by the fleet-footed Japanese brought them to the 
rather dirty little village of Mokee where they 
found that they must spend the night in a native 
inn. Though there were several in the place, 
there was not much to choose from ; all were in 
this case equally uninviting. The thick mats 
which in private homes do so nicely for beds, 
were brought in, but in a hotel, especially an 
Eastern one, the fastidious eye them with painful 
suspicion. However, our weary travellers had 
nothing for it but to spread their rugs and pil- 
lows, eschewing the much padded covers brought 
by the hotel people, and lie down. Disrobing 
was out of the question with Mrs. Won, who had 



240 To Japan and China 

prejudices ; for every now and then some male 
or female servant came walking in through the 
too conveniently sliding doors, which would 
neither lock nor latch. It would not be of the 
least use piling any number of articles of furni- 
ture if you had them (which you don't) against 
such doors, which slide along with such untrust- 
worthy ease. In fact, at any moment your wall 
may come apart anywhere, and the unknown 
and undesired walk into your room. 

Pastor Won liked to tell of his first visit to 
Japan on his way to Korea, when quite alone, 
with all his small worldly wealth he was forced to 
sleep one night in such an inn. With his wallet 
under his head, he tried to compose himself to 
sleep, wondering if those heathen innkeepers 
were to be trusted, and not reassured by the 
fact that without his hearing a sound, a servant 
entered the room and put out the light. But 
after a little as he lay there in some disquiet, he 
heard from the room above him the familiar 
strains of dear old *' Rock of Ages," and then 
the accents of prayer, upon which he smiled and 
fell asleep. 

On the present occasion, Harry's mother was 
not afraid of robbers or cutthroats, but she dis- 
liked guests after she had retired, and she 
realized that she might expect them, both hu- 
man and otherwise. The three took turns guard- 
ing the doors for each other while ablutions were 



Japanese Bedrooms 241 

going on, but after that it was hopeless. Just 
as Mrs. Won began to believe she could put 
aside her doubts and fears, and assume the phleg- 
matic indifference which drowsiness kindly be- 
stows as a nightcap, a great water beetle, two 
inches long, approached her with touching con- 
fidence that she would protect and warm him. 
His mistake was manifest. Mrs. Won scrambled 
to her feet with more agility than one would 
have thought possible in a rheumatic ; everybody 
jumped, a hunt was instituted, uselessly, of 
course, and then madam announced her decision 
of sitting up in a camp chair all night. To think 
of lying down with the risk of having those 
creatures crawl into one's ears or mouth was too 
harrowing. She begged the Captain and Harry 
to sit up, too, but to no effect. Too sleepy to care 
what should crawl whither, her two companions 
were soon unconscious. 

As for her, poor, weary creature, she watched, 
but saw nothing, though she watched long. She 
knew, too, quite well, that it only meant the wily 
enemy were only biding their time until she 
should be again at their mercy. How fervently 
under such harrowing circumstances a woman, 
brought up in the midst of Anglo-Saxon purity 
and comfort, longs for a proper bedroom and a 
proper bed, words are totally inadequate to ex- 
press. At length weariness of the flesh could 
hold out no longer. Hands and feet went to 



242 To Japan and China 

sleep whether or no. A camp chair does not 
offer faciHties for repose, when one's back aches, 
and there is no place for the too heavy head ; in 
a word, even nerves, of which Mrs. Won pos- 
sessed too plentiful a share, succumbed, and she 
again sought the floor, and again was no sooner 
landed, than forth came the enemy. But too 
late to torment her much. A feeble resistance 
was made, it is true, but not long. 

Nature, compelling and kind, assumed her un- 
disputed sway, and before one o'clock even she 
was sound asleep, in spite of alarms. 

The next day they found themselves after a 
short sail in the little port of Obama. This is 
quite a favourite sea bathing place with the na- 
tives, but their method of enjoying it must needs 
remain undescribed. Civilization has still much 
to be accomplished in Japan. As visiting the 
beach was out of the question, they decided not 
to linger here, but made arrangements to ascend 
to the sulphur baths at once. 

In order to go up the mountain, one must ride 
in tiny native carrying chairs proportioned to ac- 
commodate the small and light Japanese. They 
are really not much more than a tray, with a cover 
supported on four poles, and so low that only a 
very small European woman can sit within, with- 
out stooping. When Mr. Won came to try one, 
he found that very extensive folding of various 
members was absolutely essential. These so- 



The Land of Pictures 243 

called chairs are slung slantwise across the 
shoulders of two men, so that the pole which 
rests on the first bearer's right shoulder, lies on 
the left one of the man who walks behind. This 
gives the rider a charming view of the scenery 
back and forth, and on both sides. It was im- 
mensely well worth seeing. Japanese foliage is 
redundant. An endless variety of beautiful trees, 
bushes and ferns adorned the hillsides as far as 
eye could reach. Lovely valleys lay in tempting 
beauty below, magnificent mountains rose in lofty 
grandeur above, words fail, vocabularies become 
exhausted, the picture defies description. The 
Captain soon spurned the Konga, which he 
would never have attempted had he been in 
health, and walked until exhaustion made a re- 
sort to the little cage absolutely necessary. 

Six or seven hours' climbing brought them at 
length to the hot springs of Unzen. The moun- 
tain which was not probably more than two 
thousand feet high was covered with beautiful 
woods, but at its level, about eight or ten acres 
in extent, where three or four hotels stood within 
a stone's throw of each other, very little green 
was to be seen. The ground was whitened 
with various salts deposited by the water, and 
the air almost suffocating with the fumes of 
sulphur. 

Owing to the fact that the tourist season was 
over, the party had the pick of the three or four 



244 'To Japan and China 

nearly empty hotels, and were soon accommo- 
dated with a comfortable room, but decided 
almost from the first glance at the environs that 
it would never do to stay there. The house was 
surrounded with pools of boiling water, bubbling 
up continually from the ground, everywhere 
warning signs were posted to visitors not to 
venture here, or there, without a guide. Steam 
issued from crevices almost anywhere, the earth 
in the whole vicinity was hot and gave a hollow 
sound when trodden upon, and wherever one 
poked in an umbrella or stick at once issued a 
fierce burst of sulphurous steam, and a pool of 
boiling water. With the least inadvertence one 
was liable at any misstep to plunge a foot ankle 
deep into boiling water. How could children be 
allowed to venture beyond the door sill into such 
surroundings ? It looked desolate and evil, as if 
it might be the very entrance to the abode of lost 
souls, and wicked spirits. 

Taking a little reconnoitring expedition, they 
found this state of things existed over quite a 
large extent of ground. They were amused and 
interested to find that the natives in the vicinity 
had utilized the hot earth by sinking large jars 
close at their doors, which they filled with pure 
water, and thus kept themselves supplied with 
that necessity at boiling point day and night. 
They also saw small bowls of food well covered, 
partly sunk in the hot ground, in process of 



Hot Springs 245 

cooking for a labourer's noon meal. It was won- 
derful, curious, but grewsome and horrible. That 
night in the wee, small hours, they were awak- 
ened by a low threatening rumble as of thunder 
which grew louder and terrifying, while the earth, 
the house and the Americans in their beds, were 
shaken, not by the rocking of the ordinary earth- 
quake, but with an up and down pepper-box 
motion, as though the source of convulsion was 
directly underneath. 

Mrs. Won piously vowed that if she lived till 
morning she would flee that evil place ; so next 
day, on a tour of discovery, they found a very 
pleasant hotel about two miles away from the 
main springs, with a lovely view of woods, 
mountains and sea, and a safe place for children 
to play. To be sure there were hot springs near 
it, too, but smaller, out of sight, and not menac- 
ing the safety of little ones. Here they moved 
bag and baggage at once. There was not only 
a fine large garden, but a beautiful artificial pond 
such as Japanese and children love, with an island 
in the centre, dwarf trees and little bridges, and 
full of gold fish, some of them nearly a yard long, 
with the most wonderfully beautiful fins and tails. 
Not far away was a dell where a brook leaped 
down the mountain-side over great boulders, 
rested a little in a lovely glassy pool shaded by 
magnificent trees, and then fell sparkling on its 
downward course to the valley and the sea. 



246 To Japan and China 

This pool was great sport. Here toy navies 
could ride at anchor, here dams were built, here 
children could splash about barefooted in the 
water to their hearts' content, or give free vent to 
the imprisoned monkey within, in climbing about 
over the rocks at the risk of their necks, not to 
mention their garments. For the rest there were 
the ferns that nestled lovingly in every crack and 
corner among the stones, the graceful vines and 
the ever changing beauty of scenery. But for 
all the beauty, nobody seemed to gain any 
strength. Mamma Won's rheumatism grew 
daily worse, and so they decided to try the 
merits of a sea trip, returning to Korea via 
Shanghai and Cheefoo, not on the rule that the 
longest way round is the shortest way home, but 
believing that the longest way round would bring 
them home the fittest for work. So back they 
went, down the mountain, Harry murmuring 
much at not being allowed to box up the pool 
and take it along, only carrying away pleasant 
memories, a strong odour of sulphur, a few min- 
eral specimens and photos. At Nagasaki they 
took one of the Japanese steamers bound for 
Shanghai, and prepared for about thirty-six 
hours of misery. The Yellow Sea is unpleasantly 
notorious among travellers in the East, as the 
most disagreeable body of water one ever is 
compelled to become acquainted with. Here 
typhoons play their wildest and most terrible 



A Rough Voyage 247 

antics, here are fogs, rocks, drifting currents, 
high tides, and those choppy cross seas which 
in a way all their own, toss up a steamer 
and its passengers with a peculiarly evil dex- 
terity, almost invariably successfully sending 
everybody to bed in the most awful throes of 
violent seasickness. Proud and vain mortals 
who boasted of crossing the Pacific or Atlantic 
without a qualm, have succumbed on the trip 
from Nagasaki to Fusan or Chemulpo. The 
crossing from Shanghai to either of these ports 
has an even more undesirable reputation. 
Whether its yellow character has anything to 
do with this is not certain, but I am inclined to 
think it may. So our party, big and little, re- 
signed themselves to misery, as I said, but like 
most earthly trials, it didn't last forever, and they 
found themselves in Shanghai not much the 
worse, hoping and believing as Mrs. Won always 
insisted on doing, that they were in some way 
much the better for the trial, either spiritually or 
physically, perhaps both, since every difficulty 
patiently and meekly endured, must brace and 
strengthen the character, as the wild tempests of 
winter strengthen the fibre of the tall trees that 
are to serve in carrying the King's messengers 
from continent to continent. 

Shanghai ! What a metropolis, what a Vanity 
Fair, what a collection of all that is desirable in 
material things, what gaiety, what a breath of 



248 To Japan and China 

Europe to people just emerged from the depths 
of Korea. 

But arriving there fresh from San Francisco, or 
London or New York, what a pitiful travesty of 
a town, what an inextricable mixture of all the 
races on the globe, what unsatisfactory imitations 
of proper shops, what poor streets, how shut in, 
how drearily Chinese, Eastern and heathen, with 
just a sufficient varnish of the European to re- 
move the charm of the strange and the foreign. 

Yet in some things Shanghai is always re- 
markable, unique and excellent. She is perhaps 
the most cosmopolitan city in the world, and 
with a great native population, and town, purely 
Chinese, in all its filth, misery, darkness and 
degradation, it has a foreign concession, which 
is a little republic in itself with its own laws and 
officials, and which, for good order and cleanli- 
ness, might well be imitated by Western cities. 

As for those tall, magnificent Sikh policemen, 
Harry and Mrs. Won were simply fascinated. 

They all wear such charmingly picturesque 
turbans and sashes of gorgeous Eastern colours, 
and stand as unmoved as stone statues, in the 
midst of the awful crushing, jamming, confusion 
and hurly-burly of Shanghai thoroughfares. 

To our benighted travellers from the back- 
woods of Korea it was a wonderful and charming 
city, full of delightful possibilities. First of all it 
was like water to a desert-starved traveller to see 



Shopping in Shanghai 249 

so many Europeans and Americans. Then the 
shops, what a chance to re-stock in all the thou- 
sand and one little things housekeepers in the 
East unexpectedly run short of and cannot get 
there. It is such a comfort to be able to pick 
out shoes and stockings and hats and gloves for 
oneself. They soon found the foreign shops were 
not for them, where freight, duty, great shop 
rents, and clerk hire, made the prices of very or- 
dinary articles, especially expressed in silver dol- 
lars, or yen, appalling. One experience was 
enough for sister Won. She asked the price of 
a small pressed glass ice jar, which she felt it 
would be almost an affliction to see on her table, 
intending to crucify the flesh by purchasing it, 
instead of a nice one. Supposing the price 
would not be more than twenty-five cents, she 
was aghast to be placidly informed that she 
might have it for nine dollars ! She fled the 
spot as quickly as her fainting members would 
transport her, and sought the native stores. 
Here were real bargains, and here (remember 
she had not shopped for years) she hung de- 
lighted over the counters for hours. You must 
know that when Pastor Won reached Shanghai, 
his first visit was paid to the bank, where he un- 
derstood that he had a small balance to his ac- 
count, fully realizing that he would need it all 
now if ever. To his delight and surprise he was 
informed that his balance amounted to several 



250 To Japan and China 

hundred yen more than he had expected, and he 
took the Hberty to meekly suggest that he feared 
there was some mistake. The haughty clerk was 
astounded at such effrontery, and in concise, 
frigid and overwhelming tones gave the Captain 
to understand that the bank made no mistakes. 
He, of course, while humiliated, was nevertheless 
not ill pleased to find that he had been so far in 
the wrong, on the right side. The matter was 
of some years standing ; he had kept a balance 
there for convenience in trading in Shanghai; 
there had been some oversight, but now, they 
would do the town with an easy conscience. 
They declared, when they saw real carriages, 
landaus and victorias (a sight which had not 
gladdened their eyes for years), with a degree of 
extravagance and folly incomprehensible in mis- 
sionaries, that they meant to have a ride in a 
carriage behind a pair of horses if it took the last 
dollar they ever had. A hack much the worse 
for wear, drawn by bony, unhappy looking 
horses, and driven by a very evil looking China- 
man, was speedily brought to the door. The 
one idea of these drivers seems to be that of get- 
ting to and from one point to another, at the 
greatest possible speed, and they doubtless keep 
a time record somewhere, and gamble on the 
result. The Wons had noticed this, and so had 
asked an American resident to teach them the 
Chinese words meaning ''drive slowly." These 



Drive Slowly 251 

they repeated to themselves a great number of 
times, so as to be able to check the headlong 
speed of their Jehus. Forth then they started, 
into the narrow thoroughfares, most of which 
have no sidewalks, crowded past description 
with pedestrians very young, and very old, with 
wheelbarrows, jinrikishas, equestrians, bicycles, 
carriages and hacks like their own. In a moment 
the driver, leaning forward, was lashing the un- 
happy horses, who were plunging frantically for- 
ward into the mass of humanity. Mrs. Won's 
eyes dilated with horror; she grasped the seat 
with both hands and braced herself to be shortly 
either a victim or a murderer. The Captain, in 
stentorian tones, shouted over and over the cab- 
alistic words supposed to mean '*go slowly," but 
nothing came to pass. Either they were not 
pronounced properly, or were totally unheeded. 
Away they went, like a party of drunken sailors 
on a holiday, careering through the town at an 
indecent pace ; nothing had any effect on their 
reckless driver, until in swinging round a corner, 
the thing which Mrs. Won had all along feared 
actually happened; they upset a jinrikisha, and 
tumbled out a highly respectable old Chinaman, 
who only escaped being ground under their 
wheels by some miracle. During the delay oc- 
casioned by this episode, the Captain possessed 
himself of the driver's whip, and thenceforth they 
proceeded at the rate of a funeral on its way to 



252 To Japan and China 

the cemetery. This was infinitely better, how- 
ever, and Mrs. Won now consented to relax, lean 
back, and enjoy the ride. There is only one 
possible suburb to which one can escape from 
the city of Shanghai, and that is the Bubbling 
Wells road. 

Perhaps because they had heard so much about 
it, perhaps because there are such a multitude 
of beautiful places outside of Seoul, the Wons 
were greatly disappointed in this drive. That 
most interesting in connection with it to them, 
was the number of elegantly appointed convey- 
ances, and elegantly dressed ladies whom they 
met taking their daily airing here. Certainly the 
Shanghai world, native and foreign, were abroad 
on that day. 

This drive was their only experiment in the 
livery stable line, but they felt it would last for a 
long time. Far more than the drive, which we 
have seen was not unmixed bliss, even more than 
the shops and the people, the missionaries en- 
joyed the pretty park facing the harbour, and es- 
pecially at six o'clock when a real foreign band 
played real music, when the fountains were going, 
and when, best of all, the place was crowded with 
lovely foreign children. What a joy it was to 
their hungry eyes and hearts to see so many lit- 
tle ones. White, Caucasians, mostly English 
and American, too, though there were German, 
French, Portuguese, Italians, and I suppose 



Jinrikisha Riding 253 

specimens of nearly every nationality in Europe. 
*' And the streets of the city shall be full of chil- 
dren playing in the streets of the city." It seems 
to me that it is one of the most delightful and 
bewitching sidelights of description the Bible 
throws on that city that is to be. 

Harry was nearly beside himself with delight ; 
he had never seen so many children in his life be- 
fore, and the park, the children, the music, the 
fountains, the flowers and the games were a sort 
of heaven to him. 

Shanghai gives one the impression of an im- 
mensely busy place ; it is quite American in its 
rush and bustle, everybody seems in a tearing 
hurry, and one catches the infection immedi- 
ately. 

Distances being great, they had to patronize 
the jinrikishas continually to their great regret, 
for the coolies who pull them have become like 
the cab drivers, possessed with the spirit of Jehu, 
and nothing suffices to check their terrible head- 
long speed. Accidents of the most serious char- 
acter are of daily occurrence as might well be in- 
ferred at once, by any one viewing the crowds of 
vehicles and people rushing madly in every di- 
rection. Harry's mamma always sat bolt upright, 
her teeth clenched, her hands convulsively grasp- 
ing the sides of her perambulator, heart palpitat- 
ing somewhere about the rate of one hundred 
and thirty to the minute, and in constant expecta- 



254 To Japan and China 

tion of instant death or mutilation. Though she 
escaped any accident, one of her friends was not 
so fortunate ; and a few days later, as they swung 
round a corner at automobile speed, she was 
flung to the ground with her baby in her arms. 
Providentially the night was cold, they were 
both bundled and wrapped, and so got off with a 
few sprains and bruises. The 'rikisha man dis- 
appeared, well knowing he was liable to punish- 
ment. All these 'rikisha coolies are obliged to 
buy licenses ; each vehicle is numbered, and fare 
is regulated by law, the amount to be paid an 
hour being plainly printed in each carriage, so 
that there is really less difficulty in dealing with 
these men here than anywhere else. Another 
much used conveyance in Shanghai, both for 
carrying goods and people, is the wheelbarrow. 
This has often been described, and I need only 
say, it is the most cumbrous, unwieldy, ugly, in- 
convenient and generally objectionable thing in 
the way of a vehicle that in the writer's opinion 
was ever invented, motor cars (in regard to speed 
its exact opposite) only excepted. But its looks 
and unpleasant way of blocking the road is noth- 
ing to the awful sounds which emanate there- 
from, to which the squealing of several stuck pigs 
is blandest music in comparison. Any sound 
more grating, rasping, cruelly agonizing to the 
whole nervous system the writer has never heard ; 
the very memory of it is torture, and the fact that 



Going to Church 255 

the Chinese can cahnly endure this, even riding 
for miles in these machines, proves, without a 
doubt, the theory that they are less sensitive to 
impressions of pain than Caucasians. 

Mrs. Won, though a good Presbyterian by in- 
heritance and conviction, often found a peculiar 
delight in the English Church, so here after at- 
tending the union service of her own and other 
denominations in the morning, the Captain and 
she visited the English Church in the evening. 
She liked the beauty and order, the grand old 
service when well read ; she liked to kneel and 
stand in outward token of reverence and devo- 
tion, Puritan though she was, and she liked the 
music. But here was an unusually fine pipe 
organ, and an organist who knew how to use it, 
and who had a soul for worship and for spiritual 
things as well as the gift of a musician, and it 
seemed to the woman who had been shut away 
there so long, where no such heavenly ministra- 
tions were ever known, that her soul rose on the 
wings of that music, and floated up in a rap- 
ture to the City, and was bathed in the harmonies 
and blessedness of heaven. 

But this was only too brief, and soon it was all 
over, and yet the sweet memory and joy of it 
lingered and she hoped perhaps in some way she 
might be a better, nobler woman for it, as she 
knew she was a deeply grateful one. And that 
organist who sat up there on his bench and 



256 To Japan and China 

served God with his gift will never know till 
time is past what a blessing he conferred upon a 
poor thirsty soul, in the ordinary course of duty 
done joyfully as well as faithfully. 

Of course, while in Shanghai, they visited the 
missionaries, heard the fascinating tale of their 
work, saw their fine schools, churches and hos- 
pitals, yes, and held converse with some of those 
very men and women and little children who 
were soon after to swell the noble army of 
martyrs. But those who visit such a work as 
that, in so necessarily hurried a w^ay, cannot 
speak of it in detail with accuracy and justice, 
aside from the fact that a suitable report of mis- 
sion work in Shanghai would in itself be enough 
to fill a large book. So I shall simply content 
myself with saying that they gladly learned useful 
lessons at the feet of these consecrated workers, 
and came away with new inspiration and encour- 
agement. 

They had not come to Shanghai, however, in- 
tending to make any stay longer than was neces- 
sary to wait for a steamer going to Cheefoo and 
Korea, so all too soon Mrs. Won and Harry 
thought, and not a moment too soon thought 
the man with the full account book and nearly 
empty purse, they sailed for Cheefoo with its 
fine bracing air and magnificent beach. 

At the hotel in Cheefoo our young American 
caused considerable amusement by his table talk 



Boy Statesmen 257 

on politics and matters of world interest. On 
coming into the breakfast room Harry would 
ask his father, who was perhaps reading some 
Shanghai paper, " What are the powers doing 
now, papa?" with the air of a legation attache 
at least. 

One morning he and another small boy dis- 
cussed with much acerbity the action of Germany 
in regard to the Greeks and the Turkish war, 
Harry ending up with the remark, '' If we only 
decide to go into this matter, we could show 
them what, couldn't we, Willie" (meaning, of 
course, England and America). The German 
consul who happened to be sitting at the next 
table was of course greatly entertained at the 
pomposity of the young American Eagle. 

As the party were obliged to wait here at 
least a week for their steamer to Korea, it was 
decided to take a short trip inland to Tung 
Chow, in order to see the famous schools of 
the mission there. The Cheefoo missionaries 
gladly offered to help them make arrangements, 
and this was the more feasible, as a missionary 
from that place was there in Cheefoo, for the 
purpose of conducting a young couple just from 
America to their appointed station. There were 
usually only two ways to reach Tung Chow, one 
by water (and no boats were now running), and 
one by a schenza or mule litter. 

The schenza is not a flowery bed of ease. It 



258 To Japan and China 

is carried by two mules, one in front and one 
behind, on whose yokes its frame merely rests, 
and remains by virtue of skillful balancing and 
weight. In its lower part, made of ropes well 
woven together, and bound to the frame, are 
deposited one's baggage ; over these are rugs, 
blankets, pillows and comforters, and on them 
sits the victim, overshadowed by a canvas cover, 
stretched over hoops, looking not unlike a prairie 
colonizer's wagon. But the traveller must be- 
ware how he or she sits, and avoid putting too 
much weight above the centre of gravity, or too 
much on either side of it, or there will be sudden 
and unexpected calamity. Usually only one per- 
son rides in these litters, though sometimes a 
small American woman with a baby, and even a 
Chinese nurse, well adjusted and much experi- 
enced, have managed it successfully together. 
But the missionaries tell a sad tale of a very fat 
couple, recently married, who insisted, in spite of 
the protests of the experienced, in riding together 
in one of these conveyances, and how even be- 
fore it left the compound, it yielded to the laws 
of gravity, and relentlessly rolled off the mules 
and dumped the portly couple on the ground. 

The motions of the schenza are said by the 
practiced to be three; one is the side to side 
rocking of the cradle, one forward and back like 
the fan, and one the up and down of the pepper 
box. 



Schenza Riding 259 

The Cheefoo friends said they didn't beHeve 
Mrs. Won, who, you will have seen by this time, 
was not strong, and was moreover lame, could 
stand this combination of joltings for twenty-four 
hours of travel. 

But she was very anxious to go, and the Cap- 
tain, as usual, found a way. Has any one ever 
gone there in a sedan chair ? was his first ques- 
tion. " No," was the reply, in all the thirty years 
work that has been carried on, no woman, how- 
ever delicate, has ever gone except in a schenza 
or by steamer. It was doubtful, they said, if 
coolies could be hired to go so far. 

But the Captain believed in trying, and suc- 
cessfully contracted, at a very moderate rate, with 
four chair coolies to carry the wife to Tung Chow, 
while Harry and he and the other lady of the 
party had a couple of schenzas and a donkey. 
So Mrs. Won was the pioneer of sedan-chair 
travel from Cheefoo to Tung Chow. The young 
bride, Mrs. Cole, found the schenza very weary- 
ing, and was glad to accept an exchange for a 
few hours with Harry's mother, who therefore 
had a fair trial of this far-famed, and in China 
much-used conveyance. 

Harry, whose soft little joints had no pain in 
them, and who was as elastic as a rubber ball, 
quite enjoyed the jolting. I suppose it reminded 
him of his baby days when he had been jumped, 
trotted, rocked and generally shaken up by his 



26o To Japan and China 

innumerable nurse maids of various nations, who 
each had her own special scheme of exercise and 
unrest for infants ; at any rate he professed to 
enjoy it, but with his Amonni it was very dif- 
ferent. Besides stiff joints, and a head that 
jumped at any excuse to ache, she possessed, 
as I have said before, an uncommonly irascible 
set of nerves, which, like a skittish horse with 
his ears always pricked up, were continually on 
the lookout for causes of alarm, and ready to 
shy at the first hint of anything of the sort. Fm 
rather ashamed of Harry's Amonni as I have 
stated before ; she was far from my ideal, but yet 
this must be said, in her honest defense, I don't 
think she ever shrank from any real or threatened 
danger which she knew that for any good reason 
it was right for her to meet. In fact I know that 
more than once she walked calmly into very real 
danger without the quiver of a nerve. Still, she 
would scream when a June bug flew in her face, 
and was extremely silly in all such little things. 
So in the schenza, the bumping wasn't what 
troubled her most, but first of all she realized 
that any little aberration on the part of either of 
the mules, as, one going forward and the other 
stopping, would land her on the ground. She 
next found that she had no way whatever of con- 
trolling the animals, neither whip nor rein, and 
the sternest adjurations or thetenderest coaxings 
had no effect whatever on their stony hearts. 



Mules Will be Mules 261 

She next discovered that it was not only impos- 
sible for her to get out of the contrivance, unless 
the beasts were stopped and made to kneel down, 
but also that she had no possible means of look- 
ing out at the side or back, without endangering 
a tip-up of the whole affair, nor could she make 
anybody hear. About this time, the road lead- 
ing along a rather high, rocky bluff, with broken 
edges, where large blocks of earth and stone had 
fallen away, the mules with pure malice afore- 
thought, deliberately and with awful slowness, 
began walking as close to the ragged edge as 
was possible, no doubt in serious contemplation 
of suicide. Life isn't very dear to a schenza 
mule, and he'd enjoy dying like Sampson, if he 
could kill the Philistines at the same time. There 
is always a schenza driver, a stolid Chinaman 
with a long whip and a face of wood, who is 
supposed to be in charge, to guide, direct, ex- 
hort and rebuke the mules, and make himself as 
useful to the " foreign devil " who employs him 
as consistent with his, the driver's, dignity, 
pleasure and convenience. But on this occa- 
sion, his pleasure and convenience led him to 
linger a quarter of a mile to the rear, confabbing 
with another schenza man, and so, when Harry's 
Amonni lifted up her voice, and screamed for 
somebody to come and save her life, not only 
did all the sound waves flow foward instead of 
back from that speaking tube of a conveyance, 



262 To Japan and China 

but the man was so far away that he couldn't 
hear, even if he wanted to, which, of course, he 
didn't, and Pastor Won and the others who were 
walking with Harry, had dropped far behind 
and were deep in the discussion of mission prob- 
lems. So there was no help for it; Mrs. Won 
found there was nothing but to trust the Lord, for 
I'm afraid that like a good many others she only 
fell back in His arms when there was nothing left 
that she or anybody else could do. And yet she 
was not all wrong even in this, for I suppose we 
most of us believe that God " helps the man who 
helps himself," and that He expects us to do our 
best, always resting on the knowledge that He 
is with and for us, and stands ready to help 
where we fail. 

Our danger is, that in the belief we must do 
all we can, we sometimes are led to ignore God's 
help, and to forget that where we seemed to suc- 
ceed, it was only because His strength lay back 
of our weakness, and when we fail, to think only 
in a despairing kind of way, that *' there is noth- 
ing for it but to trust the Lord," as if in Him 
were not the very first beginning of our hope 
and surety. Of course nothing untoward hap- 
pened, except that Mrs. Won made such hasty 
preparation for sudden death as the place and 
circumstances would admit of, and tried to await 
the end with becoming fortitude. When the 
missionaries had finished one chapter of their 



Desolate North China 263 

discussion, they mounted their donkeys, caught 
up with the schenza, and then there was an end 
of trouble. No trouble ever lasted long, or 
seemed unendurable to Harry's mother when 
the Captain was at hand. The driver was 
brought to time, and, by dextrously twisting 
the hind mule's tail, the carriage was stopped, 
though how it happened that the h'ont animal 
didn't go on, was never known. Both were then 
made to lie down, and the tired woman was 
helped out. She never repeated the experiment, 
and from that day, the missionar}^ itinerant 
women of China have had her wondering re- 
spect, nay her reverence, wath untold commisera- 
tion. 

Nor were the trials they so uncomplainingly 
bear in travelling her only reason for this regard. 
To work in a country which so far, at least, as 
North China is concerned, has no features of 
physical beauty, but is one great dreary, almost 
treeless plain, swept by awful clouds of fine 
poisonous dust, where flowers and vegetables 
are with the greatest difficulty coaxed into a 
feeble existence, where the masses of the people 
hate the foreigner, and are ready at any mo- 
ment to mob them, must be a trial w^hich only 
the inspiration of the work and the peace of God 
in the soul can overbalance. In many of the 
small stations in interior cities the loneliness is 
almost overpowering, and works havoc with the 



264 To Japan and China 

nerves of some women. One of them, a high- 
strung, finely organized, delicate American 
woman of wealth, who had left a home of lux- 
ury to go with her husband to carry gospel light 
to China, told Mrs. Won that during five years 
of such life her reason was almost wrecked. 
There was only one other woman in the station, 
about three miles distant at the opposite side of 
the large Chinese city. There was no garden, 
no place where she could walk, but from her bed- 
room, through the sitting-room to the kitchen 
and back. It was not safe for her to go, even in 
a chair, alone across the city to see her com- 
patriot or to visit Chinese, the work there having 
only recently been started, and they entire stran- 
gers to the whole native community, who re- 
garded them with hate and suspicion. Her 
husband was away weeks at a time, itinerating 
in the country ; God had not blessed her with 
little ones, and so as with rapid strides, she 
paced her cage like an imprisoned animal, she 
wondered how long reason would endure. It 
was all the agony of solitary confinement, and at 
length she was only saved by removal to a port 
where some social intercourse and out-of-door 
exercise were possible. But even where several 
hours a day were spent in interesting work with 
Chinese women, or where there are little children 
of one's own to interest and occupy one, the lack 
of fresh air and exercise (for in many interior 



Making the Best of It 265 

towns it is not safe for foreign women on the 
streets), the absolutely viewless prospect, the 
want of social intercourse with equals, the need 
of an occasional change of occupation and 
thought, wears fearfully on American nerves. 
Mrs. Won thanked God more than ever for 
beautiful Korea, with its mountains and rivers, 
her dear garden, and best of all, her dear friendly 
people. 

Only part of their journey was made during 
the first day, and night found them at a native 
inn, which far exceeded in filth and discomfort 
anything they had ever seen in Korea. 

It seemed almost impossible to think of eating 
in such a place, but it was too bitterly cold to 
sup out of doors, and hunger prevailed over 
fastidious qualms. After supper the Wons 
washed their own dishes and put their food 
carefully away, but the other party strolled out 
to enjoy the moonlight and left their kit to 
be looked after by a Chinese servant, who 
dumped the dishes, etc., into a greasy pan of half 
cold water, and wiped them carefully on his 
skirt. They spread their rugs ruefully on a sort 
of dirty, foul smelling shelf in the wall, and fell 
asleep, as people will, even decent Americans, in 
such an unseemly, loathsome place, after travel- 
ling all day long in the open air, in November. 
Next morning the young missionary, who was 
their guide, told them they must not wait for 



266 To Japan and China 

breakfast, but travel right on, in order to reach 
their destination before dark that night, espe- 
cially as an early reception had been arranged 
for them by all the missionaries of Tung Chow. 

Mr. and Mrs. Won listened to their injunction 
sorely ill-content. They were not of that variety 
of, shall I say athletes, who rejoiced in walking, 
working or doing anything else on empty stom- 
achs, but were extremely dependent on good and 
regular supplies of provender, especially could 
neither of them endure to begin the day fasting, 
and any necessity compelling thereto, invariably 
resulted in headache, nerves and unfitness for 
work. But the fiat had gone forth, so the 
Captain and his family only indulged in a 
surreptitious cup of tea, and two or three crack- 
ers hastily unpacked and eaten as they went. 
At noon, they stopped at an inn dirtier than the 
former. A perfect catacomb of little black, air- 
less rooms, opening each into some other, but 
none except the outer one opening to any fresh 
air. Here generations of dirty natives of the 
poorest class had slept, eaten and probably 
died, without the place ever having been once 
cleaned. 

Nature itself rebelled, the odours were too 
overwhelming for American flesh to endure, and 
finding a sunny spot out of doors, they took a 
hasty lunch from their baskets and tin cans, and 
hurried on their way. About six o'clock they 



Genuinely Hungry 267 

arrived at the gray town of Tung Chow, than 
which a drearier, Mrs. Won thought she had 
never beheld. 

The city walls were of gray, the narrow streets 
ran between walls eight or ten feet high, of cold, 
gray brick, all the houses were gray brick after 
one pattern, not a tree, not a hill, not a bit of 
grass, or a hint of bright colour relieved the eye. 
Mrs. Won wondered whether the sunsets were 
gray brick, too ; but as the high walls hid this 
indecorous exhibition of gayety in the skies, it 
might as well have been gray as far as the 
citizens of that town were concerned. They 
were most kindly and cordially welcomed by the 
good doctor and his family who had offered their 
hospitality to the visitors, and sent at once to 
their rooms to prepare for the reception to be 
held at the girls' school. But the Wons were 
hungry, famished, ravenous. No breakfast, a 
hurried '' pick-tip-hmch,'' a long day in bracing 
November winds, had brought them to the point 
where a good dinner was the chief end of man, 
and the lack of it threatened being his last end ; 
but nothing was said of dinner. And this re- 
ception, could it be possible they were expected 
to stay their failing powers on refreshments ? 
Gloomy visions of wafers and tea haunted their 
hunger fevered brains. Go to. The prospect was 
dark. It was now long after six, alas ! However, 
they at length found themselves in the pleasant 



268 To Japan and China 

parlours of the girls' school, receiving a warm 
welcome, but no dinner. One little group and 
another arrived, the room was filling fast, Mrs. 
Won's spirits fell to zero. A dinner was im- 
possible for so many, it must be that merely re- 
freshments were intended ; and sure enough in a 
few minutes napkins and plates were passed. 
But anxiety was soon dispelled ; they were not 
to be starved. Such delicious rolls and sand- 
wiches, cold meats, salads, tea, chocolate and 
cake, in merciful abundance, were forced upon 
them, that even the throes of such hunger as 
theirs were appeased. 

In the two or three days, which was all that they 
had to spend, they enjoyed and learned much, 
in hearing the experiences of the workers, study- 
ing their methods, and especially in looking into 
their wonderful schools, conducted by such men 
as Dr. Mateer and Dr. Hayes. 

They returned to Cheefoo and Seoul wiser, as 
well as fully recuperated, ready for the yearns 
work. But Mrs. Won never thought of Tung 
Chow without a vision of those gloomy, dull, 
gray brick houses and walls, with no vista, no 
vision, no sunset, no sunshine, nothing but hard, 
straight lines, dullness and gloom, and prayed 
God to be merciful to His servants in China, and 
bless them with a double portion of His joy. 
Before they left Cheefoo, the Captain received a 
letter from the bank in Shanghai, telling him 



The Other Mr. Won 



269 



that they had made a mistake between his ac- 
count and that of another Mr. Won, a merchant 
in North China, and that the money he had so 
gleefully appropriated, at their bidding, was the 
other ma?z^s ! 

Some men in his circumstances would have 
torn their hair and rent their garments at such 
news as this; not so the Captain. It took a 
great deal to distract his peace of mind, his 
absolute trust in His Father's care for even the 
smallest things, and the event always proved he 
was right. In this instance, as usual, money 
coming from an entirely unexpected source more 
than covered the whole sum required, and every- 
thing was well as usual with the Wons. 




XII 

HOUSEKEEPING 

In a very short time after their return from 
Cheefoo, Harry and his folks started off for an- 
other long trip into the interior of Korea, to 
visit the many little groups of native Christians, 
the sheep who needed looking after, and those 
other sheep not yet in the fold. This time a 
young married couple, new missionaries, were 
going with them to study methods of work, the 
people and country. 

This pair had only been in the country a very 
little while, and the little bride, who was barely 
twenty, had to begin to learn some of the 
difficulties of eastern life and housekeeping 
very early. 

In the first place, like the Wons, they left 
America with the conviction that their only food 
would be rice, and rice Mrs. Brown abhorred. 

Some way, of course, would be found ; but 
how she was to live on it she couldn't see ; so 
when they reached Japan and found they could 
buy raisins, she thought she might eat this 
starchy article if sufficiently mixed with raisins 
of which forthwith they bought a great many 
pounds, a7id ifi the stunmer ! And not in sealed 

270 



Raisins and Crackers 271 

tins ! For, alas, they had not learned that fruit 
that comes through the tropics and across oceans 
to Korea must all be in sealed tins in the summer. 
Mrs. Won always sealed hers up in Mason's jars 
as soon as it came, even in winter. So when 
these raisins that took such a lot out of the little 
salary arrived, they were in a dreadful way, and 
poor little lady had a task almost like the poor 
princess in the fairy tale to go over all those 
thousands picking out all that was bad, cleaning 
and separating, with patience. Such a weari- 
some work. 

She didn't think to ask anybody what to do, 
and didn't seal them up even then ; and a few 
weeks later, lo they were worse than ever, and 
had to be thrown away, mixed with tears. 

Besides raisins, they bought in Japan two im- 
mense packing cases, at least three feet square 
each ; but some rascally foreign trader cheated 
them, and when the cases were opened in Korea 
they turned out to be all green and mouldy, 
quite entirely spoiled, and weren't even fit to 
kindle fires. And the freight across from Japan 
and up to Seoul, had cost almost as much as 
the crackers ! 

They had bought a cook stove in Japan, and 
a few pretty China things, a tea set, and plates 
and dishes, with some kitchen utensils. Just as 
few and simple as possible, and put them all into 
the hands of an experienced English shipping 



272 Housekeeping 

agent to pack for them, they being so new and 
inexperienced in such matters. He said he'd 
pack them carefully, but when they reached 
Korea not a whole dish was to be found in the 
entire assortment of broken China, and even 
the stove was in little bits. 

Stoves always are that way though. I doubt 
if there is a single unbroken kitchen stove 
among all the mission homes in Korea. Packers 
in America and otherwhere, seem to think that 
freight is carried to the Orient on flowery beds 
of ease, but when it reaches there, appearances 
would warrant the conclusion that the last part 
of the stanza would better describe the true 
state of affairs : namely that they '' had fought 
to win the prize and sailed through bloody 
seas." 

The packers seem to have the common con- 
viction that it is a good thing for a stove to have 
the covers, legs and other small loose articles 
placed carelessly in the ovens, to rattle around 
as lively as possible. They all do that and it is 
universally successful in breaking the stove. If 
it is in a condition which admits of mending, the 
owner generally thinks himself lucky, but oh, if 
he could only shy that stove back across the 
Pacific at the packers ! Well, it wouldn't do, it 
wouldn't be missionary, but I'm afraid there are 
times when he'd like to do it if he could. 

Those packers enjoy sending harmoniums 



The Domestic Problem 273 

and pianos, too. They often arrive in kindHng 
wood, but to return to Mrs. Brown. 

They patched up their broken stove as well as 
they could, and started out on their housekeep- 
ing experiences. Their cook was a very green 
Korean young man, and their trials were many. 
It wasn't so much his smoking and combing his 
hair in the kitchen, and cooking vile smelling 
messes of his own food. He would insist on 
using all the soap for his own clothes and putting 
the kitchen utensils away greasy. The potatoes, 
eggs, and sweet milk disappeared with mar- 
vellous rapidity ; the family were frightened at 
the amount they were consuming. One day the 
little puin * found him with the kitchen towel tied 
round his head to keep off the dust, and once 
(that was the time she had hysterics) she saw 
him use the dish-cloth pocket handkerchief-wise. 
She was silly, you say, but she saw it, and it was 
her dish-cloth I 

When she came in the sphere of his usefulness 
and found him just eating some of the stew out 
of the kettle, and when with his mouth full of 
hot meat and potato, he couldn't answer her 
charge, she had a slight revenge. 

Then there was the jelly. She had never 
made jelly before, but an old housekeeper told 
her what to do, and some delicious looking 
Korean red raspberries came, so she bought 

1 Lady. 



274 Housekeeping 

them all, a very large quantity, and with many 
interruptions went through the stages of pre- 
paring the fruit, the sugar and the jelly bags, 
boiled the strained juice, and then, the last 
critical moment for adding the sugar came and 
all was well. She had been told to try the syrup 
after it had boiled three or four minutes with the 
sugar, in a cup of cold water, which she sent her 
cook running to the well to bring very cold. 
Back came the enthusiastic neophite, with a 
large quart dipper full, and without a moment's 
delay, or losing one drop, poured it all into that 
jelly ! 

Every housekeeper knows what that meant to 
that poor young wife. Disaster, disappointment, 
failure, loss, and after a long day's hard work ! 

So Mrs. Won, to comfort her, told her some of 
her early experiences. How, having invited some 
high Korean of^cials to dinner, and this the first 
time she ever tried to give a large dinner party, 
right in the midst of preparations the cook said 
his wife was very sick and he had to be allowed 
to go home, and the boy (that's the housemaid) 
asked to go off for his morning meal. No mat- 
ter what happens, if you are in the middle of 
cleaning out the dining room, or there should be 
an earthquake, or fire, or a death in the family, 
the boy must be away from one to two hours 
eating, between half-past ten and half-past twelve. 
So there she was alone, struggling with the aid 



A Disastrous Dinner 275 

of a cook-book and unaccustomed hands, with 
six or seven courses, when the door-bell rang, 
and she had to leave everything with that per- 
verse disposition to ruin itself which all food on 
the stove has, and open the door. 

There stood one of the invited guests for that 
evening. He politely asked to see Mr. Won, 
and on being told that he was out, calmly walked 
in, seated himself with dignity and deliberation, 
and said he would pay his respects instead to 
Mrs. Won. He regretted extremely not being 
able to be present that evening at the dinner, 
and so he had come now instead. Mrs. Won 
wondered despairingly what was going on in the 
kitchen, and tried to compose herself to treat him 
with politeness and deference. After staying 
near an hour he expressed a desire to see the 
house, so he had to be conducted through every 
room, and everything described and explained as 
far as her defective Korean would go. Before it 
was quite over, her knight errant came in and 
took him off her hands. No irreparable damage 
was done, an elaborate dinner was prepared ; 
then quite tired out she dressed, prepared to 
meet the guests who had all accepted, but who 
never came. The dinner hour passed, they waited 
another hour, still no arrivals, then they remem- 
bered the parable of the wedding, and sent for 
the schoolboys w^ho trooped joyously in without 
any delay and ate with an appetite and an appre- 



276 Housekeeping 

ciation which made the Wons only delighted at 
what had seemed so trying a result of their at- 
tempt to win the high class men. Next day 
various excuses came, and they discovered that 
to invite Korean nobles, who had not yet learned 
rules of foreign etiquette, to dinner, was an act 
of more than doubtful expediency, and never 
again asked more than one or two at a time with 
plenty of reliable foreigners as a standby. 

Then there was the bread making experience ; 
when it was all to be learned, and there wasn't 
any yeast, and all the cook books told you to 
start yeast with yeast, and when that was sur- 
mounted, the bread set at seven, before cook 
left for home every night, would sour before he 
came at six in the morning. 

And then there was the time teaching them to 
launder the clothes, which she never had learned 
herself, and when with written directions they 
had laboured through the whole day, and strug- 
gled through the mysteries of starch making, 
and were just in the frightfully serious matter of 
starching and blueing the table-cloths, which had 
several indigo spots on them and had to be 
rinsed again, foreign ladies came in to call, and 
it was getting dark, and they might mildew (the 
table-cloths), oh, it was comedy now, but it was 
tragedy then I 

Then there were other instances of jelly and 
preserve making, in the very middle of which 



A Glad Relief 277 

crowds of Korean women came in, and things 
had to be left in order to prescribe for dyspepsia 
when " the food wouldn't go down and wouldn't 
come up/' or '' a wind from the stomach arose 
and made the eyes sore." Yes, there were plenty 
of these reminiscences to assure Mrs. Brown that 
her lot was the common lot of all beginners, that 
every one could sympathize with her, and that 
she might take heart again, seeing the footprints 
of her older sisters in the sands of household ex- 
periences. 

But now they were going together for a long 
country trip, and the Wons' good little cook 
would prepare all the food, and they would be 
for weeks in touch only with God and His handi- 
work, and honest sturdy country people. 

They walked and rode all day in the delight- 
ful, stimulating, fresh air, except when in the 
towns or large villages, where they, the women, 
were shut in little dark rooms, and visited by 
crowds of wildly curious Korean women, who 
most of them cared a great deal more about 
studying their clothes and wondering over their 
looks, and asking all sorts of questions of the 
most impertinent character, than about hearing 
of a foreign religion. 

Some of them had heard strange things of 
this religion. "One must be careful. There 
was witchcraft in it. If you read one of their 
books through you had to believe, in spite of 



278 Housekeeping 

yourself, and there was a medicine, too, which if 
you once tasted you were their victim." 

" So one must be careful. It was truly, a 
wonderful kugung to see the people with their 
white faces that weren't powdered, and their 
peculiar noses and eyes." 

'' It was dangerously fascinating, so many 
strange, delightful things, and what soft hands 
the women had!" ''They're all alike soft and 
satiny just like baby's hands." "Those foreign 
women looked respectable enough, quiet and 
modest, but of course that could hardly be, 
travelling all around preaching like that." 
When they caught a little of what was be- 
ing said it seemed so strange and beautiful 
and tempting, they were frightened. " Come, 
let's go," and like a flock of frightened pidgeons 
they would all hurry out, before the charm could 
work. But here and there a seed took root, a 
sympathetic smile and hand pressure, a book, a 
tract, a child healed, a song, just a little seed 
here and there rooted, and in time sprang up. 

How those American hearts yearned over the 
poor women so near enfranchisement, light, hope, 
glory, clinging to the filthy tattered remnants of 
old dead faith, clinging to their fetters, loving 
the darkness in which they had lived a half dead 
life so long, turning their backs on happiness 
and life. " Ye will not come unto Me that ye 
might have life." 



A Real Welcome 279 

But in places where the little groups of Chris- 
tians were found was always the same overjoyed, 
almost adoring welcome. By them, they seemed 
to be regarded as almost more than human. 
They were like angels who had come to them 
with the news of that wonderful Hope that 
opened out vistas of eternity and heavenly 
glory. 

Mrs. Won always returned to Seoul in an ex- 
tremely low and humble state of mind. In vil- 
lage after village, woman after woman, taking 
her hand in a bony grip like a vise, and looking 
at her with a sorrowful gaze would say, " Alas, 
how old you've grown since we last saw you 1 " 
or, *' How sick and feeble you look." *' How 
grieved we are to see how sick and old you are 
growing ! " or, '* What trials you have endured 
for us, how dried up you are 1 " This is all to 
show their affection and concern, and, as they 
believe it has all come through the hardships 
undergone to carry them the gospel, it is the 
highest honour and praise in their power to be- 
stow. Mrs. Won found, too, on this trip that 
they talked in the same way to Mrs. Brown 
who was twenty, and had never been sick and 
was fresh as a daisy ; so she didn't take it to heart 
so much any more. As for Harry, by the time 
he was twelve they began asking if he was 
married, why not, and when and to whom he 
meant to be, in a way that was highly embar- 



28o Housekeeping 

rassing to the young man who had only very 
recently and reluctantly given up the idea of 
marrying his mother, whom he had insisted from 
his third year should be his only wife. 

He walked the streets with a following of at 
least twenty-five to fifty boys, all eager to play 
with him and to be his henchman to any extent. 
The Christians were, of course, the favoured 
parties, and the envy of all the rest. With them 
there were games of prisoner's base, leap-frog, 
tag, hide and seek, and all the other games 
boys like. 

One day the party divided. Pastor Won had 
to go far off the road to a little hamlet up in the 
mountains where there were only a little handful 
of sheep, and no room for so many to sleep and 
eat, only about three little huts altogether ; so he 
went one way, and the Browns, Mrs. Won and 
Harry, with all the chair coolies, pack ponies and 
mapoos went another. Harry was on horseback 
this time, when he wasn't trotting on his own 
little legs ; Mr, Brown was walking, too, and 
the two women were in chairs, jogged along 
with a good deal of jolting before night, for the 
road was rough and long. By and by the two 
Christian helpers who were leading, came to 
Mrs. Won and said they would hurry on and 
see that rooms were warmed and rice prepared 
and welcome ready, to which she gave assent, 
and they hurried off, glad to be rid of the slow 



A Dismal Outlook 281 

going procession. On the men plodded, through 
mud and mire, over hill and dale, across slippery 
paddy-fields and through tangled bits of wood, 
now with the frequent rests, uncomfortable mo- 
tion and discontented grumblings which showed 
they were both hungry and tired. 

At last, just when dusk was falling, and their 
destination was only sim nee (three miles) away, 
according to the last traveller questioned, there 
was a discussion among the coolies, accusations 
and recriminations, and it turned out that they 
had lost the way among all the windings of the 
network of little footpaths, had come a long 
distance wrong, and were not at all sure how to 
go right. To be lost on a wide plain with no 
village in sight, just at dark, with a bitter night 
in sharp late November, just closing down, no 
fires, no shelter, no warm food, was not an 
agreeable prospect. The coolies complained 
loudly, but everybody intended to reach those 
warm rooms and that hot rice that night, and 
set about it with energy. But no matter how 
many people they asked, it was always **sim 
nee " to that village, no more, no less, although 
they had gone several times " sim nee '* as they 
could all vouch. 

At length they came to a place where two 
ways parted, and here a whispered consultation 
was held by the coolies, the import of which 
Mrs. Won insisted on hearing. 



282 Housekeeping 

Faithful old Kim, who was her only servant 
among the bearers, told her that there was now 
a river to be crossed in a little while, and that 
they had been discussing whether to cross over 
the bridge which was near, or the ford which 
was far, and that the tired chair coolies refused 
to take the ford, since they could not then reach 
the village before nine or ten o'clock. " But if 
we go over the bridge, then our litde son on his 
pony would have to be separated from our party 
and go by the ford would he not?" ''Yes, 
lady." " And is not that the bridge, the high, 
long, very narrow one which was broken, and 
which I had such trouble in crossing once be- 
fore in the daytime?" **Yes, lady." "And 
now we have only one poor lantern, the night 
is very black, my husband is far away, only this 
newly come young gentleman with us, do you 
think I will trust myself on that bridge, or allow 
my little boy to be taken one road and I an- 
other, thus, at night, among what sort of natives 
I do not know? What evil noise, what bad 
work is this? Tell them I will not cross the 
bridge." 

Hereupon arose loud and angry remonstrances 
from the coolies. Some threw themselves on 
the ground and declared they were dying, some 
went further and solemnly asserted they had 
died some time ago. "That is well," said 
Mrs. Won ; " now the world will be more peace- 



Cross Coolies 283 

ful and blessed, and we shall not have you to 
feed." But the dying and dead were sufficiently 
obstinate for very much alive men, and proved 
it by some very active metaphorical kicking. 

They declared they were too hungry to travel, 
and positively refused to stir unless consent to 
the bridge was given. Now Mrs. Won knew 
that bridge only too well. It was not more than 
a foot wide, too narrow for any pony to cross, 
and it was more than likely to be broken in the 
middle, and even should she succeed, with much 
danger and terror in crossing, her little one 
would be wandering, how many hours she 
knew not on the moors, with strange hired men, 
and their bedding and food might not arrive all 
night. So she, too, put her foot down and kept 
it there, and with Mr. Brown who hadn't much 
Korean, but plenty of firmness and good sense, 
they carried their point against the angry coolies, 
who having found out there was no help for it, 
set to, with grumblings many and loud, and 
trotted on through the dark to the ford. ** Sim 
nee " always, as on and on they went. All of 
them hungry and more or less cross, and grow- 
ing momently more and more exhausted. 
Harry had succumbed long ago, and was sound 
asleep on his pony, and obliged to be held on, 
at either side, his poor head bobbing about in a 
pitiful way, there being no room in either of the 
chairs, nor would the tired and cross coolies 



284 Housekeeping 

have listened for an instant to any proposal of 
their carrying him as well as his mamma. The 
Wons had thought to save mission itinerating 
appropriation by bringing him on a pony 
instead of a chair, which is nearly twice the ex- 
pense, but it was hard work that night. How- 
ever, at about ten o'clock the welcome lights of 
Taiton appeared ; everybody did their best to 
make them comfortable ; there were shining 
faces of glad Christians, warm rooms and food, 
and soon after peaceful rest on their own cots 
and rugs. The Korean chair coolie is a quantity 
to be counted with, not on every time. He is 
the most independent creature in existence, and 
the most greedy and voracious. He is never 
satisfied, and you are never sure until you are 
through with him that he will stick to his 
bargain. He may have had no breakfast or no 
dinner, and his family may be starving, but if 
you give him one fifth of a cent less than he had 
decided to extort, he will hand the whole amount 
back, and walk off unpaid to give you a black 
name among his kind. He will dicker for 
hours, and go ofT at the last minute, leaving you 
in the lurch. The Korean chair coolie is in 
many respects the Irishman of the East, easy- 
going, good-natured, but ready for and enjoying 
a fight, in which loud talk has its proper share, 
prone to stop at every seiil shop, getting as 
tipsy as his limited amount of cash will allow, 



Coolie Nature 285 

no idea of telling the truth where it is possible 
to tell a lie, quickly touched by kindness and 
sympathy, quite overwhelmed if you show in- 
terest in his troubles, commonly fond of a joke 
or a good story, loving his wiie and little ones 
fondly, thoughtless of anything beyond to-day's 
food and drink, he belongs to a happy-go-lucky 
class of men, with no more thought or knowl- 
edge of the future alas than the leaves on the 
trees. 

They all liked Pastor Won because he chatted 
and joked with them, laughed at their stories, 
abused them roundly, but treated them like 
brothers. 

At one of the stopping places, among the ex- 
periences told by the Christians, was one related 
by a converted drunkard. He said he had for 
years made his living by gambling, had been a 
confirmed drunkard, and engaged in every kind 
of evil practice. One day as he was walking 
through the streets of Song Do, he saw on one 
of the main thoroughfares, standing in the 
middle of a crowd, a blind preacher, who in 
terrifying language was describing the wrath of 
God against sinners and the fate that awaited 
those who were unrepentant. 

'' His long arm was outstretched, his lean 
finger pointed me out, and his sightless eyes 
were fixed on my face," said the man. Smitten 
to the heart, he made his way to the speaker 



286 Housekeeping 

and asked why he had singled him out from all 
the crowd, by his words and gestures. '' Be- 
cause you are the man I " said the wise preacher. 
" Now," said he, '' the only thing is to go at once, 
make confession, take Jesus as your Saviour and 
begin to be a Christian." '' But I must study 
many books, and repent a long time first," said 
the sinner. ''No," said the old man, ''nothing 
of the kind, you must repent at once if you 
would be saved and become a Christian now." 
In implicit faith the man obeyed, felt his burden 
of fear and sin gone, and became from that day 
a changed man. He now began to preach the 
gospel to everybody he knew, and first of all 
went to his old mother who sternly rebuked 
him. 

" What I " said she, " have I borne with you so 
long in all your wickedness, when you have 
broken my heart over and again, and now you 
come and ask me to tolerate and even join with 
you in this crime of casting off our ancient 
religion, and doing despite to our ancestors? 
Never will I have anything to do with this 
foreign religion." 

Nevertheless, she saw her son had become a 
changed man, and wondered at the power 
which had wrought this miracle, and watching 
day by day, saw nothing but good as its fruits. 
At last a remarkable incident won her com- 
pletely. 



A Useful Fall 287 

The rainy season had commenced, and after a 
long and terrible downpour, part of the wall of 
their poor hut fell, one Sunday. The old woman 
started to try to repair the damage in some 
temporary fashion, but her son seizing her arm, 
said, " No, mother, not on Sunday." She strug- 
gled to release herself, but he pulled her away 
by main force, just as the roof fell, and barely 
saving her life. 

''That," said she, '* was your God who saved 
me against my will ; now I will worship only 
Him and believe in Him always." So now 
mother and son are both happy members of the 
Methodist church. 

At one of the Christian villages the pastor 
was asked to perform a wedding ceremony. 
They were poor people, and could not afiord to 
have all the fine clothes and abundance of 
dainties I have described, and more they were 
forced to hurry on the wedding because the 
pastor could not wait for long preparations or 
return that way as they had hoped. So every- 
thing was hastened. The neighbours helped, 
and as the wedding was between an orphan 
relative living in the house and the eldest son, 
both the boy's and girl's wedding garments had 
to be made in short order ; but the friendly 
neighbours and relatives all took hold and 
helped. Mrs. Won brought out her thimble and 
helped, to show them she was one of them, and 



288 Housekeeping 

weave a little thread in the tie that bound them 
together, although her lame fingers were of not 
much use for neat and dextrous work. The 
bride was a tall, rosy, wholesome looking coun- 
try girl, with that simple, honest, modest look so 
many of the young peasant women have. The 
boy was small for his age which was something 
over twenty. 

The missionaries will not marry the Christian 
boys under eighteen, and the girls must be at 
least sixteen. The people like the Christian 
service, the vows of mutual devotion and the 
ring much better than their old forms, and are 
beginning to leave oH the defacing white paste 
and red paint which make a fair young face look 
so hideous and ghastly. 

This poor little bride had no ornaments, and 
her dress was comparatively very plain, but it 
was so much finer than her every-day attire, she 
seemed to feel more than satisfied, and then it 
was a great deal to be married by the pastor 
himself. 

Before their trip was half over, they reached a 
place in the interior where no chair coolies could 
be hired, but here the Christians offered to carry 
the chairs and the loads, and though unac- 
customed to such work, staggered along with the 
best will in the world. Mrs. Won's heart over- 
flowed with gratitude and affection, to think of 
these kind people undertaking such work, which 



Kind But Rough 289 

to the untrained is very severe, for her. If she 
had not been lame and rather weak, she would 
far rather have walked, and as it was, it was no 
easy riding, with the chair tipping now this way 
now that, now forward, now back, and shaking 
worse than a schenza (as they didn't understand 
keeping step), and then being bounced down on 
the ground every few minutes when the tired 
men could stand it no more. But when she 
thought it was being done in love by those who 
found it so hard, she felt it was worth all the 
weariness it cost and much more. 

In one of the little villages which they visited 
there were only two Christians, a man and his 
wife. As they were nearing the place, the leader, 
who knew all the Christians in that district well, 
told the missionary that this was a very devoted 
couple who walked ten miles to church and back 
every Sunday. They had both been turned out 
of their father's house and cast off by all their 
friends, and the man had been dragged by the 
top-knot all through the town by his infuriated 
neighbours and cruelly beaten. When they ar- 
rived they found a couple of young country 
peasants, both looking wholesome, honest and 
intelligent. The man w^as an especially fine 
looking young fellow. 

The usual questions were answered in a re- 
markably straightforward and satisfactory way, 
both showing evidence of deep spiritual experi- 



290 Housekeeping 

ence. At length the man was asked if he had 
endured hardships or difficuUies for Christ's 
sake. " No," was the reply. '' What," said the 
surprised questioner, '' have you not been a suf- 
ferer for Christ?" ''No," was still the answer. 
" But we have heard that you were cast off and 
beaten and reviled." '* How can I call that hard- 
ship or trial after what my Lord has borne for 
me," was the low reply. The missionaries looked 
on that lowly peasant with reverence, and felt 
like taking oil their shoes, for it seemed there 
was a Holy Presence there. Here was a man 
whose face was shining with inw^ard peace, and 
the continued presence of Jesus though all his 
little world had cast him of?, was dwelling under 
the shadow of the Almighty in the secret place of 
the Most High. His wife, a stout, plain country 
body, said she wouldn't mind the rest if only 
their parents would not disown them, but neither 
of them seemed to have the least idea they were 
in any way extraordinary. How surprised they 
will be when they reach the golden city and find 
they are given one of the highest seats, and are 
crowned with the martyr's crown ! 

Heaven has already begun for them right in 
the midst of persecution too, for Jesus is heaven, 
and Jesus' presence is with them. He comes in 
and sups with them, and they with Him. 

On the way back, one freezing cold day in 
November, the Wons had one of those little ex- 



Out of a Pit 291 

periences which lend spice, zest and variety to 
a country trip. 

After travelling all the morning, they found 
that the village for which they were destined lay 
on the other side of a ditch of slippery wet clay, 
which was at least fifteen feet deep, nearly per- 
pendicular, and about thirty feet across. The 
very high tides came a long distance inland, and 
twice a day this was full of water, and one could 
ferry across, but now without waiting hours in 
the biting wind, with no shelter, dinnerless too, 
one must manage some other way to cross. 

Without bare feet and legs it was impossible 
for any of the men to think of crossing. It was 
at last planned that with her husband's help she 
should climb part way down the bank, seat her- 
self in the chair, which the coolies held high 
above the ooze in the bed, and be lifted across 
by the men, slipping in the slime at every step, 
and at the steepest part, climb up with her hus- 
band's help to the other side. This program was 
carried out only in part, for the coolies, with a 
sudden spring, supported and pushed by several 
men at the back, in some miraculous way, clam- 
bered up the steep slimy bank with the chair on 
their shoulders, at the imminent risk of spilling 
the vainly protesting Mrs. Won back into the 
wet clay and filth. When she looked back and 
saw the pit whence she had escaped, she remem- 
bered the psalmist and felt she could now realize 



292 Housekeeping 

the force of his words of devout thanks. She, 
too, had been brought up out of a horrible pit 
and the miry clay, her feet set on a rock and her 
goings established with a new song in her mouth. 
It was a matter of very solemn and heart-felt re- 
joicing to her, though the tiresome Captain would 
persist in laughing. 

At Song Do, the Wons were entertained at the 
house of a high Korean gentleman, who was a 
great friend of Pastor Won. 

They were shown into a room where the floor 
was covered with the finest and heaviest oiled 
paper which shone like polished marble. Two 
embroidered mattresses to sit or lie upon were 
on the floor, brightly polished brass candlesticks 
and other brass articles were on a little table 
about ten inches high. There were sliding paper 
windows opening into a little passageway lead- 
ing to other apartments. A clock on the wall, 
and a couple of very heavy Chinese chairs, com- 
pleted the furniture. 

Mrs. Won was invited to go to the women's 
apartments to see the ladies of the house, as it 
was contrary to their custom to leave those 
rooms. 

In the large anpang, to which she was led by 
the host himself, she found waiting her a tall, 
handsome and graceful Korean woman, dressed 
in white Chinese silk with no ornaments. She 
was extremely self-possessed, cordial and talka- 




A KOREAN LADY IN FULL COSTUME 



Korean Gentlefolks 293 

live, and soon introduced her group of pretty 
children, a girl of eighteen or nineteen who had 
been married a year or so, a couple of boys, re- 
spectively twelve and eight, and a little orphaned 
niece of her husband's of about fourteen years. 
They were all except the orphan who was in 
white, in bright coloured silks. There were rugs, 
lamps, hand-basins and braziers, all of brass pol- 
ished and shining gorgeously. 

After ceremonious greetings on both sides had 
been finished, a plain, meek, sad looking elderly 
woman of near sixty came in, and after some 
time Mrs. Won was amazed to find that she was 

Mr. 's first and rightful wife. Childless, 

and therefore a mere pensioner on the bounty of 
his concubine, who was really queen of the 
establishment. It was she who gave the orders, 
dispensed the hospitality, and ruled every- 
thing. 

The older woman seemed to recognize this as 
the natural and proper condition, looked no dis- 
content, certainly there seemed to be perfect 
friendliness between the two, the concubine treat- 
ing the other with a sort of contemptuous patron- 
age and good humour of the happy and victori- 
ous. 

And yet I should not have said that even she 
was happy, for she did not hesitate to tell Mrs. 
Won, stranger though she was, the Korean cus- 
toms were bad, women could only do as their 



294 Housekeeping 

husbands allowed, and never could control their 
own actions or go and come as they liked. 

Mrs. Won knew, too, that this woman could 
not meet ladies, first wives of high men on a 
footing of equality, that her children were not 
fully legitimate, and their inheritance of their 
father's property might be questioned? Mrs. 
Won had noticed in the woman at the very first 
a lack of that stately reserve and quiet dignity 
which the real Korean lady always shows, and 
that atmosphere of rank and refinement, but 
supposed that it was perhaps the difference be- 
tween the provincial and the women of the 
capital. But when the subdued and sad old 
woman was made known, she at once understood 
the reason. The concubines do not come from 
the same rank as the first wives, and can almost 
invariably be detected by the lack of that inex- 
pressible polish which the real Korean lady 
nearly always possesses. 

Mr. possessed a very large establish- 
ment, and had a great many hangers-on, hench- 
men and servants. He held a very lucrative 
and extremely responsible position, as the super- 
intendent of the imperial ginseng factory, the 
only one in the country. 

This root which is looked upon with almost 
reverential aw^e and superstition as a specific for al- 
most all human aliments b}' the Chinese, Japanese 
and Koreans, is sold by the farmers in the raw state 



Making Ginseng 295 

for about eight dollars a pound. Nearly if not 
all of the ginseng raised in the country is raised 
on farms in the vicinity of Song Do. Each one 
is registered, and the number of plants known, 
and all must be sold to the government. The 
young plants are of little value, only that of five 
and six years' growth is brought to the govern- 
ment officials. 

It is weighed as soon as received, and the 
farmers paid a fair price. Each farmer is re- 
sponsible for a certain number of pounds. The 
roots are at once washed, all out of doors, through 
the whole process in fact, and packed tightly in 
flat wicker baskets holding each thirty pounds. 
These baskets are set in a cauldron full of boil- 
ing water, over a furnace, and kept at the most 
furious heat, by attendants who watch them con- 
stantly. There are twelve of these furnaces kept 
continually going day and night. The ginseng 
is allowed to boil for two hours, when it is removed 
and another basketful immediately takes its place. 
Each basket after boiling yields about ten pounds. 
It is then spread out to dry in the sun in flat 
baskets, or rough tables, and locked up in a 
strong room at night. 

About thirty thousand pounds are prepared 
each year. There are two kinds of which that 
called the red ginseng is the most highly prized. 
Korean ginseng brings a very high price in 
both China and Japan. Forty dollars gold is 



296 Housekeeping 

not an unusual sum to be paid per pound for the 
best. 

Great care is taken to prevent theft, and some 
Japanese who were attempting to poach from one 
of the farms were caught by Korean officers, and 
in the fight which ensued one of the Japanese 
was killed, for which the government was then 
claiming indemnity and the punishment of the 
Koreans. 

The plant is apparently very tender and needs 
great care. The beds are shielded by wicker 
covers, which are raised at the proper time to 
allow enough sunlight, and lowered to prevent 
too great heat. The farming of this is very 
lucrative, and the people of Song Do are among 
the most prosperous in the country. The women, 
even to the middle classes, wear silks and furs, 
and one sees more of all the evidences of pros- 
perity of all kinds than in other cities and 
towns. 

The Southern Methodist mission have a station 
there, and the Presbyterians have a small church 
or two, and work in the villages throughout the 
district and province. 

Nothing more worth relating occurred on this 
trip. Pastor Won held a class in one of the 
towns w^here he taught five hours a day, held 
street services for at least an hour, and every 
night gathered all the Christians, men and women, 
for an hour's Bible study and prayer. Harry got 



Home to Seoul 297 

some tracts and distributed them to the eager 
boys and men who followed him, and they all 
helped in the street service with the singing, 
while the ladies patiently submitted to daily in- 
spection by the sightseers to whom they were a 
sort of a dime museum. It was worth while in 
hope of some seed taking root, and besides there 
was the teaching of the Christian women. 

At last they started on their homeward road. 
Two nights before entering Seoul, Mrs. Won, 
who was walking with her husband, beheld, al- 
most at her feet, by the roadside, a dead hand 
stretched out from beneath the sod, as though in 
supplication. The poor body had been hastily 
and only partly covered with earth, and the hand, 
she couldn't help but think, seemed to be plead- 
ing in a pathetic way to the strong, the happy, 
the enlightened and the free, for happiness, light 
and freedom. A forlorn brother had mayhap 
fallen along a Jericho road, dumbly appealing 
to those who might but will not help the help- 
less and unhappy, the darkened and hopeless 
nations. 




XIII 

THE BOY'S CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOUR SOCIETY 

And now a time had come when the Wons' 
dear old home had to be sold, and they were 
forced to find another house. Everybody knows 
it takes other factors than brick and mortar, 
wood and stone to make a home. Of course 
*' had to," and '' forced," being interpreted mean, 
that as a high price was offered to the mission 
for it, and as for various reasons a removal 
seemed to promise better for the work, the Wons 
consented, nobody forcing them against their 
will. The native officials could not at all under- 
stand this matter of the sale of American prop- 
erty. Years before, when a piece of ground was 
desired, word was sent to the American minister 

to order Mr. to sell that land. Great was 

the native astonishment when the reply came 
that the all-powerful minister had no power to 
give such an order ; but it was nothing to the 
shock they experienced when having asked him 
to cable to the President to order the sale, they 
were told that even the President himself could 
not compel an American to sell his property. 

But though no minister, emperor or president, 
or even the mission that owned the land com- 

298 



Selling the Home 299 

pelled Pastor Won, ** the King's business " did, 
and they must all flit. The dear old homely- 
place had grown round them, and in some way, 
mysterious and unexplainable, but certain, the 
walls, the rafters, the floors, seemed almost as 
much a part of them as fingers and toes, just the 
hard outer shell, of that, of which the body was 
the inner. 

The trees, flowers and vines that had been 
planted one by one, each with a history, each a 
souvenir, of some dear old friend, some well 
loved scene, some happy time, each loved almost 
like a child, must all be uprooted and struggle 
for life in some other soil. 

Before the Wons left the new owners tore 
down the charming old ivy covered gate and 
wall at the back and ruthlessly cut down the 
reverend crooked old pine, over which the 
wisteria climbed. Mrs. Won chancing to pass 
the window at the moment saw and heard the 
blow, which seemed to cleave her own heart. It 
appeared to her an act of vandalism, but perhaps 
she had unconsciously begun to lapse into 
heathenism, and was making idols and fetishes 
of some of these things and needed to be 
aroused. 

As for the house itself there was much that 
endeared it to the family. Thither the pastor 
had taken his wife after their wedding, where as 
they stepped over the threshold together, and 



300 The Boy's Christian Endeavour Society 

realized that God had made them a family and 
given them a home, it began to be sacred. 

In yonder chamber Harry had been born — 
there through long sickness, loved ones had 
nursed, watched and prayed. Round the fire in 
the parlour they sat reading and chatting to- 
gether Sunday afternoons when service was 
done. In the dining-room many a friend native 
and foreign had sat at their board, in the sitting- 
room the native women's Bible classes had met 
all those years, and the little commonplaces of the 
household life had gone on. Here in the study 
the Christmas tree always stood while the merry 
children circled round with expectant eyes, and 
near by at the wide chimney the stockings were 
hung. Here the K's wedding took place, and 
from hence was the beloved dead carried to her 
rest. Many a children's party had made the 
rafters ring, and they had heard the psalms of the 
watch night service once every alternate year for 
nineteen years. 

What blessed meetings of prayer past count- 
ing had been held there, what long conferences 
in planning for the growth and advance of the 
work, as one and another new branch of labour, 
new form of attack on the strongholds of evil 
were undertaken. The Bible Committee, the 
Tract Society, the Christian Endeavour, the 
Y. M. C. A., the Home for Destitute Children, the 
Young Men's Missionary Association, etc. In 



1 



The New House 301 

that study the New Testament had been trans- 
lated, and what not else of hymns, tracts and 
religious helps. In yonder guest room the 
Korean refugees had found shelter, and many 
dear ones to be seen on earth no more. 

Love, joy, pain and sorrow, with one Holy 
Presence, had hallowed the place and trans- 
muted even the most common and sordid parts 
of it into something more precious than gold in 
the opinions of the Wons. Harry had never 
known any other home, and boy though he was, 
ashamed of tears, on the unhappy day when they 
left, his mother discovered him hidden away in 
the dark, sobbing passionately. 

A fine new healthy, breezy site had been found. 
A new, better '* much better house " was build- 
ing, and they were to go forth to become 
aquainted with it, and to try to fit their angles 
into its corners, their curves into its concavities. 
It had to be furnished, too, I don't mean with 
tables, chairs, pictures, etc., which is a compara- 
tively easy matter (for old ones can be moved 
though they like it little, and look all wrong in a 
new house), or new ones can be bought with 
ordinary money, but the real furniture which 
makes a richly furnished home and habitation 
for people with souls, is not so easy to obtain. 
Millions will not buy these things. Tender 
memories, precious associations, love, hope, 
blessed sorrow, sacrifice, service, victories over 



02 Tlie Boy's Christian Endeavour Society 



self, sin forgiven, all have their place in making 
the home beautiful, comfortable, livable; they 
come very slowly and are bought only with the 
costliest currency, of heart-beats and years. It 
would be a long time, if ever, before the Wons' 
new house would be as well furnished as the 
old. 

It, the new one, was not ready yet, but was full 
of clamour, dust, shavings, blue-coated, pig-tailed 
Chinamen, white-coated, top-knotted Koreans 
and spry little Japanese. The cold wind whistled 
through unfinished windows and doors, there 
was a combined sawing, pounding, cutting, 
squeaking and groaning, the birth throes of a 
house making loud complaint. 

Harry could by no stretch of imagination see 
how it could ever come to be a quiet, peaceful 
home. It was very slow work, every bit of 
moulding, nay every board cut from the log, 
was painfully sawed, cut and grooved by hand 
with clumsy native tools, and every two hours 
the Chinamen all stopped for a twenty minutes' 
smoke. While the Captain was still doing his 
best to hurry it on and ** hustle the East," some- 
thing happened. A peep at Mrs. Won's diary 
will explain. 

April 15th, 19 — . A sentinel paces before our 
gate, a guard are lodged in our sarang * and we 
are of the unenviable few, who as princes or 

> Korean guest house. 



The King Approaches 303 

prisoners — much the same thing — are kept by 
armed men, for royalty sleeps hard by ! 

Last night the palace burned down, and the 
Emperor, not desiring to occupy either of the 
other palaces so full of mournful and terrible as- 
sociations, took refuge with his family and suite 
in the Imperial building which was erected a 
few years before next door to our house. 

Sentinels were posted all around us, and what 
a rushing thither of high officials in chairs, what 
a gathering of retainers, what a hurrying to and 
fro of all sorts of menials, soldiers, police and 
who not. What a change in our quiet neigh- 
bourhood ! 

The flames leaped high in their beautiful de- 
structive play for hours, but everything was quiet 
and orderly ; no crowds gathered, a number of 
Japanese troops were on hand to assist in any 
way desired, but the headway gained was so 
great that little could be done. 

At about 2 A. M. when H went out for 

the last time to make sure there was no danger 
of the further advance of the fire, he was met by 
an officer bearing a note with the rather start- 
ling news that we and all the missionaries on 
this compound must move that very day, the 
date for handing over the property being over- 
due, and the Emperor and his officials being in 
great need of all our dwellings and more. The 
Captain at once hurried to our legation, and 



304 The Boy's Christian Endeavour Society 

respectfully but firmly stated the impossibility of 
getting out on such short notice, but promised 
to give up the house at the earliest possible mo- 
ment. The accumulations of twenty years are 
not so easily disposed of, and I'm afraid we 
have more things than are good for us. We 
had no doubt, whatever, about it when we be- 
gan to move. And where, pray, were we to go ? 
No lofts to be rented in which furniture could be 
stored, no houses to be rented for ourselves. At 
early dawn we and things began to jump. We 
would live camping fashion in a Korean house 
for awhile, and pack the belongings somewhere, 
somehow in the new house. In an amazing 
short time, curtains and pictures were down, 
carpets up, great packing cases adorned the 
rooms, piles of articles to be stored away lay on 
chairs and tables, and bustle and hurry were the 
order of the day. We stopped a little for break- 
fast and prayers, and the latter were perhaps 
more fervent than usual and the former much 
lighter. It seemed a long delay when there was 
such a hurry, but we soon learned our mistake, 
for at 9 A. M. a high official came to beg us, at 
the Emperor's urgent request, not to move until 
our own dwellings were ready. We were told 
that the presence of Americans was considered a 
protection, and the ruler of Korea was glad to 
have the American flag (God bless her) and 
American people at his door. So there we 



Visited by the Prince 305 

were to stay as long as we liked, but such a 



mess 



Nevertheless, thankful indeed we were not to 
be turned into the streets till our new house was 
ready, so with smiles and hearts at rest we pro- 
ceeded to straighten our poor upset dwelling. 

Long before the Wons were able to get their 
boxes out of sight or the rugs and curtains re- 
placed, who should come paying a neighbourly 
visit but the little Prince, the Emperor's youngest 
and much petted child. He was only seven and 
looked less, but he strode in with great dignity 
— though he arrived on a man's back — and in- 
sisted on shaking hands all round, and in fol- 
lowing polite foreign custom so far as he w^as in- 
formed. 

He was, of course, surrounded by a crowd of 
eunuchs, officials and palace women whom he 
ordered about in a lordly way. Some of them 
presumed on his presence, to intrude into the bed- 
rooms, kitchen, etc., for a kugung, ^ but were 
sharply recalled and sternly reprimanded by the 
little prince for such unseemly behaviour in the 
house of a friend. 

He was a sweet-faced little fellow, looking 
much like his royal papa, and was really a very 
bright boy, with a gentle, sympathetic and 
generous nature. 

He delighted in buying cakes and goodies 

1 A sightseeing. 



306 The Boy's Christian Endeavour Society 

from the vendors, and having them distributed 
to all the workmen and coolies, and there were 
many whom the Emperor had already at work 
on the place. And when the gateman's little 
child fell in her play he sent an official running 
in hot haste to inquire if she was hurt. Mrs. 
Won managed to sprain her ankle one day, and 
when he heard she was suffering, and that the 
presence of his retainers at such a time might 
disturb her rest, he allowed no one to enter, but 
came several times each day to enquire, and sent 
fruit and such dainties as his kind little heart 
suggested might be appreciated. 

On the first day, his first visit was a short one, 
but in fifteen minutes there they were all back 
again, and dinner had to be left chilling to enter- 
tain them. However, this royal call also was 
brief, but it was evident the duties of his attend- 
ants were no sinecure, for he proved a very lively 
young person indeed, and was in and out of the 
house every half hour always with the same 
formalities to be laboured through, always the 
same crowd of followers as before. 

The first day Harry was away, and Harry of 
course was the person he most wished to inter- 
view, not having any foreign playmates, and 
being consumed with curiosity as to his manners 
and customs, dress, looks, etc. Early next morn- 
ing, therefore, before the young American was 
awake, word came that the little Prince was wait- 



A Royal Playfellow 307 

ing at the door to see him, and the last thing at 
night came a message from his Highness wish- 
ing him good-night. 

This was all extremely kind and flattering, but 
things began to have a sameness to Master Harry 
after a few days, and to be called from work or 
play every few minutes at the beck of a small 
boy, with whom he had not a great deal in com- 
mon, began to pall, somewhat. In a word he 
began to find it a little wearisome, but he was 
nevertheless good-natured and affable, and as 
nearly respectful as was possible, but when the 
little royalty ordered him, Harry, an American, 
to run up and down simply to amuse him, as he 
would wind a mechanical toy forsooth and set it 
going to see how it would work, Harry drew the 
line, and simply but politely refused. "What," 
said the Prince, who at first could not believe his 
ears, "what, will he not do it?" Then burst 
forth a peal of uncontrollable delighted laughter. 
It was so inexpressibly funny to think that there 
really existed a being, and that a mere child who 
could dare calmly and coolly to refuse to do his 
bidding ! He was quite charmed with Harry ; he 
was a great curiosity, and loved him more de- 
votedly than ever, though he issued no more com- 
mands to that young person. But though Harry 
was not ordered about, everybody else was. One 
of the officials near his small Highness, a man of 
thirty or forty who, like all his attendants, was 



3o8 The Boy's Christian Endeavour Society 

robed in immaculate white silk garments of very 
delicate texture, was imperiously ordered to climb 
a tall persimmon-tree where Harry had seated 
himself among the higher branches, and so thither 
the unfortunate man was obliged to go, it need 
scarcely be said to the great demoralization of 
his flimsy and spotless robes. Another was or- 
dered to scale a mud wall with results pitiable to 
behold, but evidently causing not the least con- 
cern to the little despot. 

As I have said he was a bright little fellow, and 
had made good progress already in his Chinese 
studies, and withal seemed in every way such a 
dear and promising little boy that Mrs. Won's 
heart yearned over him, and she longed to snatch 
him from the crowd of sycophants and flatterers 
who constantly cajoled and deceived him and 
whose fawning service choked his manliness, 
energy and independence, fostered pride, in- 
dolence, selfishness, distrust and a host of faults 
soon to become vices. To see him trained firmly 
and lovingly, and taught what any common 
American boy may know, Mrs. Won longed in- 
expressibly, but could only pray it might be 
brought about, how she could not see. 

The war, the terrible war that had been gath- 
ering its clouds so long, had broken over the 
devoted little country some time before, but so 
far as the Americans in the capital were con- 
cerned, it brought no trouble, scarce a ripple 



War Days 309 

even of anxiety for themselves, thou-gh it cost 
them many a pang- for the country they loved 
next their own, and sometimes they almost feared 
the end of their work had begun. 

To the boys I am afraid the war was almost 
welcome. Soldiers arrived in goodly numbers 
at the Russian, Japanese, French, Italian, Ger- 
man, English and American legations. Arms 
bristled everywhere, uniforms of many nations 
varied the almost universal white of the Korean 
people ; there was marching and countermarch- 
ing, sentinels as thick as flies, roll calls on all 
sides, for the Wons had the Russian legation on 
one hand, the American on the other and the 
French across the street, and when the King- 
came so near, Korean soldiers and of^cers 
swarmed all around them. There were many 
long rows of barracks all over the city, for the 
Emperor had nearly ten thousand troops, and 
when the Japanese army of thousands of sturdy, 
grim, determined little men came pouring into 
Seoul, bless you, you couldn't turn around with- 
out running into a regiment. Nevertheless it was 
all remarkably orderly and quiet for a large city 
full of the troops of many nations. Nobody had 
any complaints to make of the Japanese soldiers, 
and seldom were any of them seen drunk. It is 
a pity as much could not be said of the Russians 
who drank far too much of their terrible vodke 
and other poisonous stuff, and ill-treated helpless. 



310 The Boy's Christian Endeavour Society 

unoffending natives in such shocking ways that 
every woman in the country wished success to 
the Japanese if for nothing but to be rid of the 
Russians. 

" Mamma," said a six year old American friend 
of Harry's, *' mamma, why do you think God 
made Russians ? " And a few minutes later, very 
earnestly, ** Do you think you would like to sit 
next a Russian angel in heaven, mamma?" 

But the Russians all left Seoul very soon, for 
there was a great battle in Chemulpo, and every- 
body knows how it ended. It was a thrilling 
and terrible thing as Harry and all the rest of 
them thought, to hear the solemn, awful booming 
of those guns like the tolling of a funeral knell, 
thirty miles away, and know they told of men 
agonizing and dying, of great ships being torn 
and sunk, and that the fate of nations, countless 
millions perhaps was hanging in the balance 
and that God was working out His great plans 
for the kingdom that is to come. They seemed 
to hear in those awful thunderings the echo of 
the lofty words of the Battle Hymn 

♦' Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord, 
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are 

stored, 
He hath loosed the fateful lightening of His terrible swift sword, 
His truth is marching on." 

A few days after the battle, Harry and Wilber 



Seeing War Sights 311 

went down to the port and saw the poor battered 
wrecks in the water, and thousands of Japanese 
soldiers disembarking from the transports as fast 
as they could be landed, all eager, joyful, proud, 
to be going straight to long hardship ; hunger, 
cold, weariness, toil, absence from the adored 
home land, suffering, probably mutilation and 
death, all for Japan. For a better country and a 
glorious King shall Christians not gladly endure 
hardship as good soldiers and count it all joy 
when we fall into divers trials ! 

The boys thought almost as much of their visit 
to the American warship in the harbour, and all 
the wonders and glories thereof which they were 
politely shown by an officer, as of all the other 
sights put together, and they were not a few. 
Such a busy scene ! Soldiers everywhere of 
course, and people of all nationalities in their 
peculiar dress, jostling each other on the crowded 
streets. Coolies, pack ponies and hand carts, 
loaded and overloaded with all sorts of things 
armies need, hurrying hither and yon. Noise, 
bustle and confusion everywhere, reporters and 
correspondents of the great journals of the world, 
some of them bearing famous names, standing 
about taking mental notes, or hurrying along 
making arrangements for going forward with 
the army. Russian and Japanese army and navy 
officers clanking about in (to the boys) fascinat- 
ing uniforms, vendors of all sorts of things, 



312 The Boy's Christian Endeavour Society 

especially photos of the wrecks in the harbour 
and the battle, advertising their wares, most of 
them lustily, and beggars in plenty piteously be- 
seeching you to *' give them life," which being 
interpreted, is a small fraction of a cent. Alas, 
how little does life mean to more than these, 
whose ideas of it are bounded by the dimensions 
of a piece of money. How many have yet to 
learn from the great Teacher that a man's life 
consisteth not in these. 

The trains which run between Seoul and 
Chemulpo are few and evil ; until quite lately it 
took something over two hours to make the 
twenty-seven odd miles, and the best time made 
now is, I believe, one hour and forty-five minutes, 
so the boys had to start back all too soon. They 
were expected home by half-past six or at the 
latest at eight, but alas when they reached the 
office, they found that the time-tables had all 
been upset to accommodate the army being 
hurried up to the capital, and not a train would 
now leave till half-past eight which meant not 
getting home till eleven or after. Harry knew 
that his mother for one, would be in '* a state of 
mind," so they went to the telegraph office and 
thoughtfully sent a despatch, which would have 
been a comfort had it arrived before the boys, but 
as the army and navy happened to be overwork- 
ing the wires like everything else just then, no 
message came to pass for hours. The little 



Japanese Courtesy 313 

party also discovered that not only were the 
hours changed, but that all the trains going to 
Seoul were reserved for Japanese soldiers and 
they could only secure tickets at all through the 
grace of a military official permit. So they hied 
to the quarters of the gentleman who superin- 
tended that business, and were asked to wait a 
few moments as he was in his bath. In a very 
few moments an exceedingly kind and polite per- 
sonage appeared smiling and perspiring in his 
kimono, undoubtedly just emerged, begging they 
would excuse his Japanese dress, and with great 
alacrity and good nature gave them the needed 
pass which secured to them a roomy compart- 
ment quite to themselves, in a much over- 
crowded train. 

Too much cannot be said in praise of the 
courtesy and kindness of Japanese gentlemen, 
and the order and discipline maintained in their 
army, while, on the other hand, there is much to 
be said in deprecation of the rudeness and dan- 
gerous character of many of their people who 
seem to be colonizing Korea by thousands, and 
who abound on the streets of the capital. 

The soldiers piled into the train that night, 
four stout little men each in a seat intended for 
two, but the boys made the trip very com- 
fortably, thanks to the pass that the kind official 
had given them. In the meanwhile telegrams 
of anxious inquiry had been speeding from Seoul 



314 The Boy's Christian Endeavour Society 

to Chemulpo and journeys made to the depot 
with the comforting information that the trains 
were now utterly irregular, were sometimes run 
on a siding to remain for hours or all night even, 
to accommodate the military trains, and that 
they could scarcely expect the boys that night. 
Mrs. Won thought of railroad accidents so prob- 
able under such circumstances, and had visions 
of the great waves in the treacherous bay that 
have swallowed little boats at a gulp, and vowed 
she could never sleep till her boy came home, and 
though the Captain didn't say much he was not 
at ease. However, a little before eleven in 
walked the truants quite all there. 

In a day or so there was a crowd of newspaper 
correspondents at the hotel, all in a hurry to be 
off to the front, getting their outfits, interpreters, 
ponies, guns, and round them at a safe and re- 
spectable distance, the boys circled in awed and 
envious admiration, wishing, with all their foolish 
litde hearts, that they could go to the war and 
witness all the exciting events that would soon 
take place. Mrs. Won never could understand 
why boys should like noise and a share in fierce 
and cruel deeds, when men shoot and cut each 
other down. However, when these same corre- 
spondents came sorrowfully back a few weeks 
later, like the King of France who marched up a 
hill and them marched down again, or Mary's 
little lamb, whom the teacher turned out of 



American Soldiers 315 

school, the boys realized that even a war re- 
porter's path is not all roses. At least their lan- 
guage did not indicate that they thought so. 
Here we must leave the war and its story which, 
God grant, may have been all told before these 
lines are seen. 'Tis a terrible and bloody tale, 
and dark look the prospects of this poor little 
kingdom of simply kindly folks, which now lies 
at the mercy of the Conqueror to be ! But we will 
trust that God who pities and avenges the weak 
in His own way and time, but surely, and who 
counts every sparrow that falls, has not forgotten 
it. 

American guards who had seen service in the 
Philippines came to the American legation when 
the w^ar broke out, of course, and I am sure Harry 
and the other American boys would gladly have 
lain down and let the soldiers walk over them. 
The boys hung round the barracks, acted as inter- 
preters and ran errands for their heroes and, of 
course, at once invited them all to church and 
prayer-meeting, an invitation which, however 
courteously received, was not, Fm afraid, very 
generally or enthusiastically responded to. 

They were all friends of Harry's and Harry 
loved them all. Some of them had to be asked 
to tea, of course, which was yet keener bliss for the 
ardent little American, who sat close beside them, 
gazing and listening as though they were demi- 
gods, while they told stories of their experiences 



316 The Boy's Christian Endeavour Society 

in the Philippines and elsewhere. So the sol- 
diers came to be a large item in Harry's life and 
that of the other boys. Soldier slang, soldier 
songs, and stories began to come to Mrs. Won's 
ears rather frequently, and she was forced to utter 
a word of warning, though she hated to cast a 
mist of doubt of the glory of his idols. " They 
are brave fellows, dear ; but all sorts of men en- 
list ; we saw some of them very tipsy more than 
once, men who like to stay in those horrible dirty 
saloons do not use the best talk, and are not com- 
panions for children ; you must choose out your 
companions among those who are Christians." 
But though the intercourse was somewhat re- 
stricted they all had a strong hold on his affec- 
tions, and he always had an excuse ready for their 
faults, to most of which he was indeed quite blind, 
and ardent praises for all their virtues. 

A much-prized institution of the foreign chil- 
dren in Seoul was the Christian Endeavor Society, 
which was made up largely of boys and girls who 
had mostly been born in Korea, but for all that 
were, as I've hinted before, straight enough 
Americans, Canadians or English. Nearly all 
of them had been in the home lands, some had 
been all round the world, for it was pretty nearly 
the same thing when their parents took their fur- 
loughs whether they crossed the Pacific and North 
America, or went round through the Suez Canal 
and across the Atlantic, so they had seen many 



Cosmopolitan Children 317 

lands, many kinds of peoples and customs, and 
been in all sorts of queer places. Most of them 
talked Korean like natives. One of Harry's 
friends in Cheefoo talked three languages fluently 
at five, for his parents being German, his nurse 
Chinese and his playmates English, he needed 
to use them all. As for Harry he had seen the 
beautiful park, the cherry blossoms, Zoo, and the 
wonderful tableau flower show in Tokyo, the parks 
and gardens in Hongkong, Singapore and Paris, 
the beautiful aquarium in Naples, the picture gal- 
leries and churches in Rome, Florence and Venice, 
had walked through the ghostly streets of Pompeii, 
sauntered through the London tower, the British 
Museum, the Zoo and Madam Tussaud, so he and 
the others too had had more than a glimpse at 
the world's peep show, if they did not live in an 
out-of-the-way corner, nor were they at all behind 
their cousins who lived in America in the educa- 
tion that is won from books ; still their parents 
felt they lacked, and feared their character might 
suffer, for the bracing Christian atmosphere of a 
large American community, and the privileges 
of the warm shelter of American Church life. So 
a Christian Endeavor Society was suggested, to 
give the children training in Christian work, a 
sort of little hot-bed in the chilly heathen weather 
for their imported plants. Everybody fell in 
heartily with the idea. A young missionary 
was found who willingly took charge of the 



31 8 The Boy's Christian Endeavour Society 

society, and the boys and girls joined with en- 
thusiasm, except Forest, who, being a nervous 
boy, was so afraid he might not keep the pledge 
he refused to sign it. Harold, and Mary Moose 
were obliged to print their names; but never 
mind, it was quite readable. 

The young members contributed very gener- 
ously of time, strength and money. 

Laurence was the oldest, in all the dignity of 
sixteen, then Lera, Myrtie, Harry, Helen, Wilber, 
Douglas, Fred, John, Bowling, Foster, Stella, 
Madeline, Max, Newlon, Ruby, Lisette, Mary, 
Harold. They were a pretty busy crowd of chil- 
dren. Before Christmas of course everybody 
was making presents for everybody else, as well 
as for some of the Koreans, but not counting that, 
they all or nearly all, raised vegetables, fruits, 
flowers or chickens, which they sold to each oth- 
er's fathers and mothers or their own ; the girls 
knitted and sewed, some of the boys and girls, 
too, chopped wood famously, and then there 
were errands and lessons, but nevertheless their 
Christian Endeavour was not a bit slighted. The 
committee for visitation of the sick were found 
with flowers and rosy, shining faces in many 
sick rooms, and proved to be a very good medi- 
cine indeed. 

All who could read took turns in leading the 
meeting, and felt the dignity and responsibility 
involved. 



Boy Missionaries 319 

Harry, Wilber and Douglas, the missionary 
committee, to which John was afterwards added, 
at once bought tracts, and proceeded to dis- 
tribute them. The novelty of little foreign boys 
offering them on the street aroused curiosity, 
and they were thronged with applicants. Sol- 
diers in the barracks let down baskets from their 
high windows, and the street cars considerately 
stopped, till they could board, give eager pas- 
sengers one, and jump off. The report for one 
month which was not one of the best, was 3,000 
tracts distributed by this committee. In this work 
they invited native boys of their own age to a 
little Sunday-school class, which Wilber superin- 
tended, and soon quite a number of little fellows 
were coming every Sunday. Wilber could not 
read the native characters nor could any of the 
boys, nor were they enough older than their 
pupils to undertake much instruction, so after 
singing and a little quiet talk, they were taken 
into the regular Sunday-school. This class was 
usually quite full, but with a somewhat changing 
audience, and how to keep those who had once 
come was a problem, but Wilber had an idea, 
and he and Harry, having talked the matter 
over, arranged that those who would come regu- 
larly for three weeks, should be promised a magic 
lantern exhibition. Fifteen were faithful, and on 
Saturday afternoon Professor Harry was on hand 
with his toy lantern, and proceeded to entertain 



320 The Boy's Christian Endeavour Society 

the crowd. His slides were mostly comic, but 
having borrowed some from a friend who had a 
fair assortment such as they were, they were 
described and commented on with dignity mixed 
with humour, jokes at the expense of some of his 
Korean cronies were indulged in, to the delight 
of everybody, and the young lecturer's efforts 
seemed, by the rapt attention and delighted 
laughter of the crowd, to be most successful. 
Moreover Lera, who had a class of native girls, 
asked for a repetition for their benefit, and this 
was followed by another request for another class 
of boys elsewhere, and so the American toy 
helped on the kingdom just a wee bit, for two of 
those boys were baptized that year. 

One Sunday when the boys' tracts were all 
gone, and they had searched their fathers' book 
rooms in vain, the elders all being at Korean 
service, they found in the Korean waiting-room a 
delightfully big pile of the very things they w^anted, 
which were forthwith speedily distributed to the 
very last leaf. But when the young natives' mis- 
sionary society, who had bought those tracts wdth 
their own savings, and were intending to give 
them out in suburban villages after preaching 
that very afternoon, came and found their supply 
all gone there were long faces, anxious inquiries, 
eager searching on all hands, especially as none 
could be bought that day. When the real culprits 
were discovered the mistake was very good-na- 



The Home for Children 321 

tiiredly condoned, and it was difficult to persuade 
the owners to accept the price ; but the boys 
would not hear of anything" else, and so it was 
all settled quite comfortably. At Christmas the 
children decided to give a feast to the Home for 
Destitute Children. There are, as I have ex- 
plained, innumerable friendless little ones in 
Korea either on the streets, or the slaves and 
dependents of those who do not love them, per- 
haps in Buddhist temples, or the houses of the 
sorcerers. A large (according to Korean no- 
tions) native house and beautiful grounds on a 
healthy hillside had been given for this home 
and a few children gathered in. 

The support of this institution was very precari- 
ous, being fathered by no boards, which do not 
patronize charitable institutions, and so it had to 
depend on the occasional generosity of a friend 
here and there, and the gifts of the missionaries 
and other foreigners in Seoul. The school is now 
without sufficient funds to pay the salary of a for- 
eign superintendent, but they still hold on to it, 
and keep it running with a native caretaker, 
rather than turn the homeless little fellows back 
into the street. The plan of the committee is to 
teach these children trades, so that they may sup- 
port themselves as soon as may be, and help pay 
expenses. The missionaries of all denominations 
hope to see it well supported, instead of strug- 
gling for bare existence ; for to save the young 



322 The Boy's Christian Endeavour Society 

before their hearts have been steeped in vice 
and their minds warped to evil is to gain a 
long advantage in the race with the powers of 
darkness. The foreign children therefore had 
planned to do their share to help. All had con- 
tributed generously, and all went out to the home 
on the occasion of the feast, to play games and 
give the little waifs as good a time as possible, 
and mingle in as merry a game of romps as 
though a wide, deep and almost impassible gulf 
did not lie between them ; yet, nevertheless, there 
it was, black and sullen, for on the one side were 
children whose birthright was civil and religious 
liberty, the breath of whose nostrils was freedom, 
purity and love, who claimed sonship of God, and 
whose dwelling was in His light, along whose 
sunny well-hedged pathway were the fruits and 
flowers of the tree of Life, who had already drunk 
of the water of Life, and tasted its Bread, before 
whom shone steadily the star of Hope, growing 
brighter and brighter to the perfect day, while on 
that other brink ! Poor little flotsam and jetsam 
of the scum of heathenism, chilling in the bitter, 
biting blasts of adversity ! Souls starving in 
ignorance, darkness, disease, crime, folly. Hither 
to this shelter they had been gathered with no 
more light or hope than wild animals, no dim 
inkling of what real mother love could be, or a 
home or even a word to express it, or a remote 
dream of it, in its plainest interpretation as 



Heathen Flotsam and Jetsam 323 

familiar to those foreign children. But now a 
light was beginning to shine dimly ; they had 
been told matters strange and hard to under- 
stand. Somewhat of One who loved them 
(though of love their ideas were very misty, not 
yours or mine) who had died for them ; and of 
the great God who was their father. All this, 
however, they did not try to comprehend as yet. 
It was no doubt some deep philosophy, too deep 
for boys and women, but at times they pondered 
it, and in the meanwhile food, clothing, warmth, 
physical and moral, from foreigners was a 
strange and good thing, and was, they knew, 
connected in some way with Him who loved 
and died for them. 

So after all the gulf between them and the little 
Americans was not entirely impassible or quite 
hopeless, however much it looked so, for that 
hidden Love that yearned over them, from whose 
light sin had kept them hidden, could bridge it 
all. 

When Harry w^as eleven, and had sat at the 
native communion service, where boys only a 
little older than himself were joining the fellow- 
ship, and as he felt the holy impulses that seemed 
to weight the atmosphere at the sacramental 
seasons when many eyes were wet with love and 
thankful sorrow, he had begged to be allowed to 
join the Korean Church, but fearing mere child- 
ish impulse might have instigated the wish, his 



324 The Boy's Christian Endeavour Society 

parents put him off nearly two years, but after 
that they could refuse no more, and not only he, 
but three of the older children had joined the 
Church. 

Of course the younger boys all looked forward 
to it, too, and had a grave respect for those who 
had taken this step, which I fear they did not de- 
serve. Harry was telling rather a tall yarn which 
Edmund refused to believe. " Why, Edmund," 
said John, *' I shall go right home and tell mamma 
if you don't believe Harry ; don't you know he is 
a Christian, and besides he is a Presbyterian ! " 
No answer ; the small doubter was silenced if not 
convinced by so powerful an argument. 

Harry is getting too old to be written about 
any more ; there will soon begin a new chapter 
in his life like that in the life of every American 
child in Eastern lands, half delightful, half dread- 
ful. They are going ten thousand miles away 
from parents, brothers, sisters and playmates, to 
be plunged into life of a new kind by themselves, 
never to return to the home as children again, 
if at all. 

Fathers and mothers put it off as long as 
possible, put away even the thought that will 
stalk forth at unexpected moments, mostly in the 
lonely night w^atches, when he forthwith proceeds 
to wind his long, cruel fingers among their heart- 
strings and tear them, so that people say next 
day, '* How pale you look I " or whisper to each 



Education Pangs 325 

other, '* How old and wrinkled he or she is grow- 
ing 1 " 

Sometimes the mother goes with the children, 
and then there remains behind a lonely, home- 
less man, toiling away, with his heart across the 
seas, and over yon there is a wife who lives a 
widow, and children who grow estranged, scarcely 
know their own fathers by sight, and pass their 
youth without a home, for the man must be left 
thus, or the children must be pushed out into the 
world, at too tender an age to meet its tempta- 
tions unguided and unsupported. The choice is 
not easy, or likely to prove satisfactory either 
way. Do w^e Americans make a Moloch of 
schooling, "education," so-called, and sacrifice 
our children and our homes upon it ? The home 
is broken up forever ! those who have been so 
inexpressibly near and precious will not meet 
again till the gulf of change and years lies be- 
tween. 

As one by one the others have gone away, 
Harry is left the oldest one, and somewhat alone. 
Mother and father bring out their favourite books 
of poetry, history and fiction, the best magazines 
are subscribed for, and certain others carefully 
dropped ; they play chess, checkers, etc. ; they 
study the catalogues for new games, but they are 
busy folks. Harry has some lonely hours, and 
then Mother Won questions her own heart 
solemnly, is she wronging her boy, keeping him 



326 The Boy's Christian Endeavour Society 

away from the joyous young Hfe of his own 
country and people ? 

The Spectre is coming very near, the rack turns 
yet another notch every day. God help Tomp- 
kins' Amonni when the time comes. Aye and 
so He will, and her dearest hope for her boy is, 
in spite of all the pain, that vv^ien preparing days 
are done he may be so honoured as to " be 
allowed of God to be put in trust for the gospel," 
in Korea. 

So let us too hope, that in later years our young 
American may take up the story of a new Korean 
people, happier, civilized, enlightened, not with 
that superficial veneer of civilization which is 
satisfied with imitating the unessential and effemi- 
nating results of the true, which touch only out- 
ward appearances, but the real, the Christian civ- 
ilization, which begins from within, in a new life 
in the heart of the people, in the people's hearts. 
A Life whose very motive power is unselfish Love, 
which works out in fair blossoms and sound fruit 
of '* nobler modes of life, sweeter manners, purer 
laws" and they 

** No longer half akin to brute ; 
For all we thought, and loved, and did, 
And hoped, and suffered, is but seed 
Of what in them is flower and fruit." 



THE END 



MISSIONS HOME AND FOREIGN 

All About Japan a Young People's History of japan, 
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A young people's history of Japan from the earliest days down to 
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With Tommy Tompkins in Korea 

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will catch and hold the attention better than a prosy speech. 

Indian and Spanish Neighbors 

Interdenominational Home Mission Study Course. 

lamo. Cloth, net 50c., Paper, net 30c JULIA H. JOHNSTON 

The Third volume in the series begun in Under Our Flag. In- 
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Spanish speaking people in our Western states, in Cuba and Porto Rico. 

The Burden of the City 3rd Edition. 

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Our People of Foreign Speech 

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On the Borders of Pigmy Land 

Profusely illustrated with photographs, 
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A clever, wide-awake missionary wife can write an interesting 
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Mrs. Fisher writes most entertainingly, and is free from cant and 
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more such informing books as this about missionary lands. 

The Pen of Brahma Pe^ps into Hindu Hearts and Homes 

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Dckcf/^** He? One of China's Christians. 
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L 



IN THE WIDE. WIDE WORLD. 



Modern India 

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E^8'ypt» Burma and British Malaysia 

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Two Years in Three Continents 

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CHARLES n. SHELDON 

"The principles and aims of Christian Socialism are here pre- 
sented with dramatic effect in the form of a story. The best thing 
about the book is the thing now most needed — the irenic, erangelic 
spirit of human sympathy that it aims to generate between the 
churches and 'labor '" — Outlook. 

Duncan Polite, the Watchman of Glenoro 

i2mo. Cloth, Jiso. MARIAN KEITH 

"There is much of that sweet and simple life characteristic of 
Canadian stories, and the beautiful life and final sacrifice of Duncan 
Polite will stay by you long after you put the book down." — Leuisville 
Christian Observer. 

For a Free Conscience cenm?y°''^' seventeenth 

i2mo. Cloth, $1.50. MRS. LYDIA C. WOOD 

'•The book has the charm of picturesqueness and novelty. The 
serene sweetness and purity of the Friends is made to contrast sharply 
with the fierce hatred of their enemies.'" — Philadelphia Press. 

Dr. GrenfeirS Parish: The Deep Sea Fisherman. 

3rd Edition. Illustrated, Cloth, net $1.00. NORflAN DUNCAN 
"It is a series of sketches of Grenfell's work in Labrador ; full of 
life and color. It is a strange land and a strange people and a strange 
life A very rare picture the author has given of a very rare man : a 
true story of adventure which we should like to see in the hands of 
every one." — Outlook. 

The Harvest of the Sea ^uSldc^^ '°'^ "'^^ °' '"' 

3rd Edition. Illustrated, lamo. Cloth, net $1.00, 

WILFRED T. GRENFELL, fl.D. 

"Relates the life of the North Sea fishermen on the now famous 
Dogger Bank ; the cruel apprenticeship, the bitter life, the gallant 
deeds of courage and of seamanship, the evils of drink, the work of the 
deep sea mission. These are real sea tales that will appeal to every 
one, and are told admirably." — New York Sun. 

The Lure of the Labrador Wild 

The Story of the Exploring Expedition conducted by 
Leonidas Hubbard, Jr. 
4th Edition. Many Illustrations and Maps, 8vo, Cloth, net ^1.50, 

DILLONjWALLACE 
"He has produced one of the most graphic and moving stories of 
adventure that we have ever read. The story tells itself, and is as 
dramatic and devout as it is pathetic. Here is a record that holds one, 
as fiction never would, of suffering faced and heroism shown, for an 
ideal that failed, by men who did not fail each other."-— iV. Y. Even' 
ine Sun . 



EVANGELISTIC. 



The Evangelistic Note a study of needs and methods, 
together with a series of diiect appeals. 
3rd Edition. 12010, Cloth, net $1,25. W. J. DAW50N 

"One of the most remarkable and stirring of recent books. It is 
really the stoiy of a great crisis in the life of a great preacher. Mr. 
Dawson's experience in his own church has justified his faith, and his 
book is a most stimulating treatise on homiletics and pastoral theol- 
ogy. It is epoch-making in character." — The Watchman. 



Torrey and Alexander ^Vnd'vv^d J Revival 

A record and study of the work and personality of the Evangrelists 
DR. R. A. TORREY, D. D., and CHARLES M. ALEXANDER. 
Illustrated, i2mo. Cloth, net $loo • GEORGE T. B. DAVIS 

The multitudes who have followed the marvellous progress of the 
religious awakening in Australasia, India, and Great Britain, accom- 
panying the efforts of these evangelists will eagerly welcome this 
glimpse from the inside of their career, personality and work. Mr. 
Davis has been associated in a confidential capacity with the work 
of the two evangelists, and writes with keen appreciation of the 
interesting facts in stirring language. 

Real Salvation and Whole-Hearted Ser- 
vice -^ second volume of Reyival Addresses, 
izmo. Cloth, net $1.00. R. A. TORREY 

The multitudes led to decision in connection with the preaching 
of these sermons, gives assurance that their influence will be extended 
far beyond the reach of the speaker's voice. Positive conviction and 
a loving plea as from a God-sent messenger, are the marked features 
of this new volume. 

Talks to Men About the Bible and the Christ of the Bible. 
x2mo, Cloth, net 75c. R. A. TORREY 

"The directness, simplicity, with wide scholarship and literary 
charm of these talks, and unhesitating claim for the highest and 
fullest inspiration, inerrancy and authority for the Bible, make them 
trumpet calls to faith." — N. Y Observer. 

The Passion for Souls 

i6mo, Cloth, net 50c. J. H. JOWETT 

Seven sermons on tenderness, watchfulness, companionship, rest 

and vision of the apostle Paul's i)assion for human souls. This little 

volume shows his keen, reverent insight at its best and is made rich 

with abundant and well chosen illustrations. 

The Worker's Weapon if s Perfecrion,^Authority 

i6mo. Cloth, net 25 cents. JOHN H. ELLIOTT 

"A fine presentation of the unquestionable authority of God's 
Word and pointed and clear directions and illustrations of how to 
tody and use the Bible." 



BIOGRAPHICAL AND EVANGELISTIC. 

Maltbie Davenport Babcock 

A biographical sketch and memorial. With portrait. Zd edition 
i2mo. Cloth. $1.00 CHARLES E. ROBINSON 

"It was indeed hard to give any true presentment of a mnn like 
Babcock, so vivid, so dazziing at times, so lovable always; but the 
writer's success is quite wonderful." — Henry Van-Dyke. 

lohn H*»nrvRarrr*W« -*• ^^''"'O'r t>y his daughter, w'th 
JOnn lienry DarrOW^ ^ hitherto unpublished portraits. 

8vo. gill top, net $1.50. MARY ELEANOR BARROWS 

"The whole story from beginning to end, at home and abroad, is 
nobly fascinating, and wherever read will do much to waken into fresh 
power the higher ideals of life. Were it fact or fiction, a more ab- 
sorbini;ly interesting story has not appeared for a long time." — 
Chicago Tribune. 

What Frances Willard Said 

i2mo. Cloth, net 75c. Edited by ANNA A. GORDON, 

World's Vice President of the W. C. T. U. 

Selections of most striking statements on a great variety of topics, 

and representing the many really remarkable qualities of America's 

" uncrowned queen " of women. 

The Soul- Winning Church 

2nd Edition. i2mo. Cloth, net 50c. LEN G. BROUGHTON. 

•'Dr. Broughton, of Atlanta, is a well-known revivalist. Some of 
his most effective addresses in this country and in England are com- 
prised in this volume. They are plain, pungent, and spiritually quick- 
ening." — The Outlook. 

The Awakening in Wales ^°'^^°l';r?oS.^^^'^'^'^° 

lamo. Paper, net 25c. rtRS. JESSIE PENN-LEWIS 

Mrs. Penn-Lewis writes from first-hand information of the great 
revival morement and the events that led ap to it. It is doubtless the 
most powerful and inspiring record yet written of the great revival. 

The Story of the Welsh Revival 

4th Edition. i6mo. Paper, net 15c. ARTHUR GOODRICH, B. A. 

As told by eye witnesses, together with a sketch of Evan Roberts 
and his message to the world. With added chapters by G. Campbell 
MoTfan. D. D., W. T. Stead, Rer. W. W. Moore, Rey. Eran Hop- 
kins and others. 

The Open Church for the Unchurched 

or How to Reach the Masses. 

x2mo. Cloth, Iz.oo. J. E. McCULLOCH 

The remarkable movement in British cities organized by the Wes- 
leyan church for reaching the masses has here been described and its 
lessons studied as applied to the needs •i this country. 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 



How to Conduct a Sunday School 

and Edition. lamo. Cloth, net I1.25. MARION LAWRANCE 
General Secretary of the International Sunday School Association 
•"Packed full of useful information. Filled with details, specific 
and practical, for which a host of workers hare longed and prayed. 
The book gives the cream of life-long experience and obseryation. In 
its concrete details lies its unique and practical service." — The Ex- 
aminer. 

Pencil Points for Preacher and Teacher 

With an Introduction by Rev. Robert S. McArthur, D.D. 
Illustrated. Cloth, net $125. ROBERT F. Y. PIERCE 

Dr. Pierce is the recognized exponent of the art of conveying 
Scripture truth by means of blackboard sketches and object lessons. 
Crowded with illustrations of blackboard drawings and suggestions 
and forms a fitting companion to his popular book, "Pictured Truth." 

Kindergarten Bible Stories o»d Testament. 

Illustrated, izmo, Cloth, net $1.25 By LAURA E. CRAQIN. 

Devoted to the stories of which the little folks never tire, but told 
in the inimitable style for vvhich this author has an exceptional gift 
as well as a peculiar discernment in bringing out the lesson of value. 

How to Plan a Lesson *"<» "sct'oi'TtchSs'""'""' 

2nd Edition. i6mo. Cloth, net 50c. MARIANNA C. BROWN 

"Suggestive, interesting, valuable The writer is an experienced 

teacher, who has made proof of her theories, and who is well able to 
make valuable suggestions. ' — Herald and Presbyter. 

The Gist of the Lesson — 1906 

Leather, net 25c ( Vest pocket size) R. A. TORREY 

Interleaved, Leather, net 50c 

The seventh annual issue of this multum in parvo upon the Inter- 
national Sunday School lessons. A most popular exposition. Nearly 
fifty thousand copies sold annually. 

Practical S. S. Lesson Commentary For 1906 

Carefully prepared by specialists in the rarious departments with 
Map and Blackboard exercises. 8vo, Cloth, 50c. net, postage extra. _ 

Itspractical value and marked spiritual expositions have given it 
a permanent place Fourteenth Year. 

The Twentieth Century New Testament 

Final Revised Translation J905. 
Cloth, netji. 00: Morocco, netji. 50; Morocco, gilt edges, net^a.oo. 
Morocco Divinity Circuit, net I3. 50; India Paper Edition, net $5.00. 
All criticism has now been carefully considered and the results 
embodied in the New Revised and Final Edition. This is the product 
of thirteen years labor by a score of translators and is practically a 
new translation. 



DEVOTIONAL STUDIES. 



The Christ of To- Day what? whence? WhUher? 

i6mo. Boards, net 50c. Q. CAHPEELL MORGAN 

A study originally presented from the platform of the Northficld 
Conferences, awakening exceptional interest at the time. No more 
suggestive v.ork has appeared from Dr. Morgan's pen. 

The Redeemed Life After Death 

i6mo. Boards, net 50c CHARLES CUTHBERT HALL 

Not a new theory of Immortality or a review of old theories, but a 
presentation with rare literary charm and with the comprehension of 
wide scholarship, of the grip of the Christian heart upon the life to 
come. It will comfort and assure the sorrowing, guide and convince 
the inquiring. 

Moments of Silence 

i2mo. Cloth, net $1.25. ALEXANDER SHELLIE, M.A. 

A book of daily meditations for a year. 



Yet Another Day 



32mo, Cloth, net, 25c. Leather, net, 35c. J. H. JOWETT, M.A. 

A brief prayer for every day of the year, and it is not too much to 
say that, although scarcely any one of them contains one hundred 
words and most of them far less, they will drive straight to the heart 
as nothing that ever came from Mr. Jowctt's pen. It is an extraordi- 
nary, little book, the flower of the sweetest, open eyed love of Christ. 
The impression of a single page is indelible. 

The Inner Chamber of the Inner Life 

i2mo. Cloth, net 75c. ANDREW MURRAY 

Suggests thoughts of the utmost importance as to the daily need of 
retirement, the true spirit of prayer, the fellowship with God, and 
kindred topics. 

Inter-Communion With God 

i2mo. Cloth, net $1.00. MARSHALL P. TALLING, PH.D. 

"Follows the theme of 'Extempore prayer,' along wider and 
higher lines. In the present book, true prayer is shown to be an 
approach from both the human and the divine sides." — The West- 
minster. 

Bible Etchings of Immortality 

i2mo. Cloth, decorated, net 50c. _ CAflDEN M. COBERN 

"The consolatory character of this little book makes it a suitable 
gift to a bereaved friend." — Outlook. 

Scripture Selections to Memorize 

With hanger, net ♦1.00. HELEN MILLER GOULD 

A Wall Roll of passages emphasizing the power and love of God, 
the dignity of man, Christ as teacher, Redeemer, King. The life of 
the Christian, his duties, his final reward; prayer; worship; love. 
Selections from the Old and New Testaments, most helpful in strength- 
ening faith, and deepening personal derotion. 



ESSAYS, POEMS, ETC. 



Makers of Cng(lish Fiction 

lamo. Cloth, gilt top, net $1.50. W. J. DAWSON 

"Mr. Dawson knows his subject thoroughly, having been sin 
omnivorous reader and possessing a memory, one might say, as re- 
tentive as Macaulays. He is a literary man of impressionable mind 
and acute judgment. His style is a perpetual delight for clearness, 
variety, force and rythm. He is an informing and delightful critic and 
his book is the work of a real critic and a master of style ; high praise, 
but deserved we believe." — Neiv York Evening^ Sun. 

Self Control : '*« Kingship and Majesty 

Decorated, i2mo. Cloth, gilt top, net $1.00. 

WILLIAM GEORGE JORDAN 

A permanent form for these robust essays on a right attitude to 
ward life, heretofore published in separate booklets. 

"Should sell by tens of millions. It's just the counsel universally 
needed, and is tendered as from man to man." — Philadelphia Tele- 
graph . 

A World Without a Child a story for women and 

lomo. Cloth.net, 50C. COULSON KERNAHAN 

Mr. Kernahan is daring, for he has had the courage to put in vivid 
language the logical outcome of "race suicide." Over half a million 
of Mr. Kernahan's previous booklets have been sold. His latest is 
assured of universal attention. 

When Joy Beg^inS a study of a woman's Life. 

i2mo, half vellum, net 50c. CLARA E. LAUGHLIN 

A charming sequel both in point of story and period of life to 
"The Evolution of a Girl's Ideal." 

Th** Pr»rlr-5*_Rv^ Rrtrtlr Charming poems of childhood 

I ne KOCK-a-Oye DOOK ^v a famous lover of children. 
Decorated. i2mo, net 50c. WILLIAM SINCLAIR LORD 

The Finest Baby in the World Being iet.ers from 

a man to himself about his child. New edition. Illuminated. Art 

cover, i6mo, net 50c. THEADORER 

A little gem of literature and Philosophy. It might have been 

called ''reveries of a father." It puts in charming words the feelings 

that quicken the pulses of every parent. 

A1\/fy^4'UA'p'c Y^a** Compiled by Helen Russ Stough 
rVlOtner S I ear mus^ated by Sarah K. Smith 
i2mo. Cloth, net, $1.25 
A collection of poems and paragraphs. Quotations for every day 
in the year, that arc inspired by the universal human emotion ex- 
pressed in "A wife ! A mother! Among the contributors are President 
Roosevelt, Lowell. Dickens, Channing, Bryant, Holmes, Hawthoroe, 
Whittier, Riley, &c. 



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